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FRANCISCO    FERRER. 
FROM   A   PHOTOGRAPH    REPRODUCED   FROM    "  THE   LITERARY  GUIDE.' 


The 

Origin  and  Ideals 

of  the 

Modern  School 

By 
Francisco   Ferrer 

Translated  by  Joseph  McCabe 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

Gbe    fmfcfcerbocker    tueee 

1913 


Copyright,  1913 

BY 

G.   P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


tTbe  Ifcnfcfterbocfeer  press,  "flew  ISorfe 


LA 


INTRODUCTION 

On  October  12,  1909,  Francisco  Ferrer  y 
Guardia  was  shot  in  the  trenches  of  the  Mont- 
juich  Fortress  at  Barcelona.  A  Military- 
Council  had  found  him  guilty  of  being  "head 
of  the  insurrection"  which  had,  a  few  months 
before,  lit  the  flame  of  civil  war  in  the  city 
and  province.  The  clergy  had  openly  peti- 
tioned the  Spanish  Premier,  when  Ferrer  was 
arrested,  to  look  to  the  Modern  School  and 
its  founder  for  the  source  of  the  revolutionary 
feeling;  and  the  Premier  had,  instead  of 
rebuking  them,  promised  to  do  so.  When 
Ferrer  was  arrested,  the  prosecution  spent 
many  weeks  in  collecting  evidence  against 
him,  and  granted  a  free  pardon  to  several  men 
who  were  implicated  in  the  riot,  for  testifying 
against  him.  These  three  or  four  men  were 
the  only  witnesses  out  of  fifty  who  would  have 
been  heard  patiently  in  a  civil  court  of  justice, 
and  even  their  testimony  would  at  once 
have  crumbled  under  cross-examination .  But 
iii 


iv  Introduction 

there  was  no  cross-examination,  and  no  wit- 
nesses were  brought  before  the  court.  Five 
weeks  were  occupied  in  compiling  an  enor- 
mously lengthy  indictment  of  Ferrer;  then 
twenty-four  hours  were  given  to  an  inexperi- 
enced officer,  chosen  at  random,  to  analyse  it 
and  prepare  a  defence.  Evidence  sent  in 
Ferrer's  favour  was  confiscated  by  the  police; 
the  witnesses  who  could  have  disproved  the 
case  against  him  were  kept  in  custody  miles 
away  from  Barcelona;  and  documents  which 
would  have  tended  to  show  his  innocence 
were  refused  to  the  defending  officer.  And 
after  the  mere  hearing  of  the  long  and  hope- 
lessly bewildering  indictment  (in  which  the 
evidence  was  even  falsified),  and  in  spite  of 
the  impassioned  protest  of  the  defending 
officer  against  the  brutal  injustice  of  the  pro- 
ceedings, the  military  judges  found  Ferrer 
guilty,  and  he  was  shot. 

Within  a  month  of  the  judicial  murder  of 
Ferrer,  I  put  the  whole  abominable  story 
before  the  British  public.  I  showed  the  deep 
corruption  of  Church  and  politics  in  Spain, 
and  proved  that  clergy  and  politicians  had 
conspired  to  use  the  gross  and  pliable  machin- 
ery of  "military  justice"  to  remove  a  man 


Introduction  v 

whose  sole  aim  was  to  open  the  eyes  of  the 
Spanish  people.  A  prolonged  and  passionate 
controversy  followed.  That  controversy  has 
not  altered  a  line  of  my  book.  Mr.  William 
Archer,  in  a  cold  and  impartial  study  of  the 
matter,  has  fully  supported  my  indictment 
of  the  prosecution  of  Ferrer;  and  Professor 
Simarro,  of  Madrid  University,  has,  in  a 
voluminous  study  of  the  trial  {El  Proceso 
Ferrer — two  large  volumes),  quoted  whole 
chapters  of  my  little  work.  When,  in  191 2, 
the  Supreme  Military  Council  of  Spain  was 
forced  to  declare  that  no  single  act  of  violence 
could  be  directly  or  indirectly  traced  to  Ferrer 
(whereas  the  chief  witness  for  the  prosecu- 
tion had  sworn  that  he  saw  Ferrer  leading  a 
troop  of  rioters) ,  and  ordered  the  restoration 
of  his  property,  the  case  for  his  innocence  was 
closed.  It  remains  only  for  Spain  to  wipe 
the  foul  stain  from  its  annals  by  removing 
the  bones  of  the  martyred  teacher  from  the 
trenches  of  Montjuich,  and  to  declare,  with 
real  Spanish  pride,  that  a  grave  injustice  has 
been  done. 

Meantime,  the  restoration  of  Ferrer's  pro- 
perty enabled  his  trustees  to  resume  his  work. 
Among  his  papers  they  found  a  manuscript 


vi  Introduction 

account,  from  his  own  pen,  of  the  origin  and 
ideals  of  the  Modern  School,  and  their  first 
act  is  to  give  it  to  the  world.  In  1906,  Ferrer 
had  been  arrested  on  the  charge  of  complicity 
in  the  attempt  of  Morral  to  assassinate  the 
King.  He  was  kept  in  jail  for  a  year,  and 
the  most  scandalous  efforts  were  made,  in 
the  court  and  the  country,  to  secure  a  judicial 
murder;  but  it  was  a  civil  (or  civilised)  trial, 
and  the  charge  was  contemptuously  rejected. 
Going  to  the  Pyrenees  in  the  early  summer 
of  1908  to  recuperate,  Ferrer  determined  to 
write  the  simple  story  of  his  school,  and  it  is 
this  I  now  offer  to  English  readers. 

In  this  work  Ferrer  depicts  himself  more 
truly  and  vividly  than  any  friend  of  his  has 
ever  done.  For  my  part,  I  had  never  seen 
Ferrer,  and  never  seen  Spain;  but  I  was  ac- 
quainted with  Spanish  life  and  letters,  and 
knew  that  there  had  been  committed  in  the 
twentieth  century  one  of  those  old-world 
crimes  by  which  the  children  of  darkness  seek 
to  arrest  the  advance  of  man.  I  interpreted 
Ferrer  from  his  work,  his  letters,  a  few  jour- 
nalistic articles  he  had  written — he  had 
never  published  a  book — and  the  impressions 
of  his  friends  and  pupils.     In  this  book  the 


Introduction  vii 

man  portrays  himself,  and  describes  his  aims 
with  a  candour  that  all  will  appreciate.  The 
less  foolish  of  his  enemies  have  ceased  to 
assert  that  he  organised  or  led  the  riot  at  Bar- 
celona in  1909.  It  was,  they  say,  the  ten- 
dency, the  subtle  aim,  of  his  work  which  made 
him  responsible.  It  may  be  remembered 
that  the  Saturday  Review  and  other  journals 
published  the  most  unblushingly  mendacious 
letters,  from  anonymous  correspondents,  say- 
ing that  they  had  seen  posters  on  the  walls  of 
Ferrer's  schools  inciting  children  to  violence. 
As  the  very  zealous  police  did  not  at  the  trial 
even  mention  Ferrer's  schools,  or  the  text- 
books used  in  them,  these  lies  need  no  further 
exposure.  But  many  persist  in  thinking, 
since  there  is  now  nothing  further  to  think 
to  the  disadvantage  of  Ferrer,  that  his  schools 
were  really  hotbeds  of  rebellion  and  were 
very  naturally  suppressed. 

Here  is  the  full  story  of  the  Modern  School 
told  in  transparently  simple  language.  Here 
is  the  whole  man,  with  all  his  ideals,  aims,  and 
resentments.  It  shows,  as  we  well  knew,  and 
could  have  proved  with  overwhelming  force 
at  his  trial  had  we  been  permitted,  that  he 
was    absolutely    opposed    to    violence    ever 


viii  Introduction 

since,  in  his  youth,  he  had  taken  part  in 
an  abortive  revolution.  It  tells  how  he  came 
to  distrust  violence  and  those  who  used  it; 
how  he  concluded  that  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual training  of  children  was  to  be  the  sole 
work  of  his  career;  how,  when  he  obtained  the 
funds,  he  turned  completely  from  politics, 
and  devoted  himself  to  educating  children 
in  knowledge  of  science  and  in  sentiments  of 
peace  and  brotherhood. 

It  tells  also,  with  the  same  transparent 
plainness,  why  his  noble-minded  work  in- 
curred such  violent  enmity.  He  naively 
boasts  that  the  education  in  the  Modern 
School  was  free  from  dogmas.  It  was  not, 
and  cannot  be  in  any  school,  free  from  dog- 
mas, for  dogma  means  "teaching,"  and  he 
gave  teaching  of  a  very  definite  character. 
Mr.  Belloc's  indictment  of  his  schools  is,  like 
Mr.  Belloc's  indictment  of  his  character  and 
guilt,  evidently  based  on  complete  ignorance 
of  the  facts  and  a  very  extensive  knowledge 
of  the  recklessly  mendacious  literature  of  his 
opponents.  Even  Mr.  Archer's  account  of 
his  school  is  grossly  misleading.  The  Modern 
School  was  "avowedly  a  nursery  of  rebellious 
citizens"  only  in  the  same  sense  as  is  any 


Introduction  ix 

Socialist  Sunday-school  in  England  or  Ger- 
many; and  the  Spanish  Government  has 
never  claimed,  and  could  not  claim,  for  a 
moment  the  right  to  close  it,  except  in  so  far 
as  it  falsely  charged  the  founder  with  crime 
and  confiscated  his  property. 

Ferrer's  school  was  thoroughly  rationalistic, 
and  this  embittered  the  clergy — for  his  system 
was  spreading  rapidly  through  Spain — with- 
out in  the  least  infringing  Spanish  law. 
Further,  Ferrer's  school  explicitly  taught 
children  that  militarism  was  a  crime,  that 
the  unequal  distribution  of  wealth  was  a 
thing  to  be  abhorred,  that  the  capitalist 
system  was  bad  for  the  workers,  and  that 
political  government  is  an  evil.  He  had  a 
perfect  right  under  Spanish  law  to  found  a 
school  to  teach  his  ideas;  as  any  man  has 
under  English  or  German  law.  The  pro- 
hibited and  damnable  thing  would  be  even 
to  hint  to  children  that,  when  they  grew  up, 
they  might  look  forward  to  altering  the 
industrial  and  political  system  by  violence. 
This  Ferrer  not  only  did  not  teach,  but  strenu- 
ously opposed.  We  have  overwhelming 
proof  of  this  at  every  step  of  his  later  career. 
But  he  was  a  child  of  the  workers,  and  he  had 


x  Introduction 

a  passionate  and  noble  resentment  of  the 
ignorance,  poverty,  and  squalor  of  the  lives 
of  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  workers.  He 
was  also  an  Anarchist,  in  the  sense  of  Tolstoi ; 
he  believed  that  liberty  was  essential  to  the 
development  of  man,  and  central  government 
an  evil.  But,  as  rigorously  as  Tolstoi,  he 
relied  on  persuasion  and  abhorred  violence. 
I  would  call  attention  to.  Chapter  VI  of  this 
book,  in  which  he  pleads  for  "the  co-educa- 
tion of  the  rich  and  poor";  and  there  were 
children  of  middle-class  parents,  even  of 
university  professors,  in  his  school.  Most 
decidedly  he  preached  no  class-hatred  or 
violence.  I  do  not  share  his  academic  and 
innocent  Anarchist  ideal — which  is  far  nearer 
to  Conservatism  than  to  Socialism — but  I 
share  to  the  full  that  intense  and  passionate 
longing  for  the  uplifting  and  brightening  of 
the  poor,  and  for  the  destruction  of  supersti- 
tion, which  was  the  supreme  ideal  of  his  life 
and  of  his  work.     For  that  he  was  shot. 

Finally,  the  reader  must  strictly  bear  in 
mind  the  Spanish  atmosphere  of  this  tragedy. 
When  Ferrer  describes  "existing  schools," 
he  means  the  schools  of  Spain,  which  are,  for 
the   most   part,   a   mockery   and   a   shame. 


Introduction  xi 

When  he  talks  of  "ruling powers,"  he  has  in 
mind  the  politicians  of  Spain,  my  indictment 
of  whom,  in  their  own  language,  has  never 
been  questioned.  When  he  talks  of  "super- 
stition, "  he  means  primarily  Spanish  super- 
stition; he  refers  to  a  priesthood  that  still 
makes  millions  every  year  by  the  sale  of 
indulgences.  If  you  remember  these  things, 
you  will,  however  you  dissent  from  his  teach- 
ing in  parts,  appreciate  the  burning  and 
unselfish  idealism  of  the  man,  and  understand 
why  some  of  us  see  the  brand  of  Cain  on  the 
fair  brow  of  Spain  for  extinguishing  that 
idealism  in  blood. 

J.  M. 
February,  IQ13. 


CONTENTS 

[APTER  PAGE 

I. — The  Birth  of  My  Ideals          .  i 

II. — Mlle.  Meunier         ...  9 

III. — I  Accept  the  Responsibility    .  16 

IV. — The  Early  Programme     .         .  25 

V. — The  Co-Education  of  the  Sexes  33 


VI. — Co-Education    of    the    Social 
Classes 

VII. — School  Hygiene 

VIII.— The  Teachers  . 

IX. — The  Reform  of  the  School 

X. — No  Reward  or  Punishment 


44 
52 
55 
59 
75 


XI. — The  General  Public  and  the 

Library        ....       81 

XII. — Sunday  Lectures      ...      96 

XIII.— The  Results     .         .         .         .101 


xiv  Contents 


XIV. — A  Defensive  Chapter     .         .     108 

XV. — The     Ingenuousness    of     the 

Child 119 

XVI— The  "Bulletin"     .         .        .129 

XVII. — The   Closing  of  the   Modern 

School  .         .         .         .     137 

Epilogue  .         .         .         .145 


The  Origin  and  Ideals  of  the 
Modern  School 


The  Origin  and  Ideals  of 
The  Modern  School 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  BIRTH  OF  MY  IDEALS 

The  share  which  I  had  in  the  political 
struggles  of  the  last  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century  put  my  early  convictions  to  a  severe 
test.  I  was  a  revolutionary  in  the  cause  of 
justice ;  I  was  convinced  that  liberty,  equality, 
and  fraternity  were  the  legitimate  fruit  to 
be  expected  of  a  republic.  Seeing,  therefore, 
no  other  way  to  attain  this  ideal  but  a  po- 
litical agitation  for  a  change  of  the  form 
of  government,  I  devoted  myself  entirely  to 
the  republican  propaganda. ' 

1  This  was  in  the  early  eighties,  when  Ferrer,  then  in  his 
early  twenties,  was  secretary  to  the  republican  leader  Ruiz 
Zorrilla.     To  this  phase  of  his  career,  which  he  rapidly 

I 


2  The  Modern  School 

My  relations  with  D.  Manuel  Ruiz  Zor- 
rilla,  who  was  one  of  the  leading  figures  in 
the  revolutionary  movement,  brought  me 
into  contact  with  a  number  of  the  Spanish 
revolutionaries  and  some  prominent  French 
agitators,  and  my  intercourse  with  them  led 
to  a  sharp  disillusion.  I  detected  in  many 
of  them  an  egoism  which  they  sought  hypo- 
critically to  conceal,  while  the  ideals  of  others, 
who  were  more  sincere,  seemed  to  me  inade- 
quate. In  none  of  them  did  I  perceive  a 
design  to  bring  about  a  radical  improvement 
— a  reform  which  should  go  to  the  roots  of 
disorder  and  afford  some  security  of  a  per- 
fect social  regeneration. 

The  experience  I  acquired  during  my  fif- 
teen years'  residence  at  Paris,  in  which  I 
witnessed  the  crises  of  Boulangism,  Drey- 
fusism,  and  Nationalism,  and  the  menace 
they  offered  to  the  Republic,  convinced  me 
that  the  problem  of  popular  education  was 
not  solved;  and,  if  it  were  not  solved  in 
France,  there  was  little  hope  of  Spanish 
republicanism  settling  it,   especially  as  the 

outgrew,  belongs  the  revolutionary  document  which  was 
malignantly  and  dishonestly  used  against  him  twenty- 
five  years  afterwards. — J.  M. 


The  Birth  of  My  Ideals  3 

party  had  always  betrayed  a  lamentable 
inappreciation  of  the  need  of  a  system  of 
general  education. 

Consider  what  the  condition  of  the  present 
generation  would  be  if  the  Spanish  republican 
party  had,  after  the  banishment  of  Ruiz 
Zorrilla  [1885],  devoted  itself  to  the  establish- 
ment of  Rationalist  schools  in  connection 
with  each  committee,  each  group  of  Free- 
thinkers, or  each  Masonic  lodge;  if,  instead 
of  the  presidents,  secretaries,  and  members 
of  the  committees  thinking  only  of  the  office 
they  were  to  hold  in  the  future  Republic,  they 
had  entered  upon  a  vigorous  campaign  for 
the  instruction  of  the  people.  In  the  thirty 
years  that  have  elapsed,  considerable  progress 
would  have  been  made  in  founding  day- 
schools  for  children  and  night-schools  for 
adults. 

Would  the  general  public,  educated  in  this 
way,  be  content  to  send  members  to  Parlia- 
ment who  would  accept  an  Associations  Law 
presented  by  the  monarchists?  Would  the 
people  confine  itself  to  holding  meetings  to 
demand  a  reduction  of  the  price  of  bread, 
instead  of  resenting  the  privations  imposed 
on  the  worker  by  the  superfluous  luxuries  of 


4  The  Modern  School 

the  wealthy?  Would  they  waste  their  time 
in  futile  indignation  meetings,  instead  of 
organising  their  forces  for  the  removal  of  all 
unjust  privileges? 

My  position  as  professor  of  Spanish  at  the 
Philotechnic  Association  and  in  the  Grand 
Orient  of  France  brought  me  into  touch 
with  people  of  every  class,  both  in  regard 
to  character  and  social  position;  and,  when 
I  considered  them  from  the  point  of  view 
of  their  possible  influence  on  the  race,  I 
found  that  they  were  all  bent  upon  making 
the  best  they  could  of  life  in  a  purely  individ- 
ualist sense.  Some  studied  Spanish  with  a 
view  to  advancing  in  their  profession,  others 
in  order  to  master  Spanish  literature  and 
promote  their  careers,  and  others  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  further  pleasure  by 
travelling  in  countries  where  Spanish  was 
spoken. 

No  one  felt  the  absurdity  of  the  contradic- 
tions between  belief  and  knowledge;  hardly 
one  cared  to  give  a  just  and  rational  form  to 
human  society,  in  order  that  all  the  members 
of  each  generation  might  have  a  proportion- 
ate share  in  the  advantages  created  by  earlier 
generations.     Progress  was  conceived  as  a 


The  Birth  of  My  Ideals  5 

kind  of  fatalism,  independent  of  the  know- 
ledge and  the  goodwill  of  men,  subject  to 
vacillations  and  accidents  in  which  the  con- 
science and  energy  of  man  had  no  part.  The 
individual,  reared  in  a  family  circle,  with 
its  inveterate  atavism  and  its  traditional 
illusions  maintained  by  ignorant  mothers, 
and  in  the  school  with  something  worse  than 
error — the  sacramental  untruth  imposed  by 
men  who  spoke  in  the  name  of  a  divine 
revelation — was  deformed  and  degenerate  at 
his  entrance  into  society;  and,  if  there  is  any 
logical  relation  between  cause  and  effect, 
nothing  could  be  expected  of  him  but  irra- 
tional and  pernicious  results. 

I  spoke  constantly  to  those  whom  I  met 
with  a  view  to  proselytism,  seeking  to  ascertain 
the  use  of  each  of  them  for  the  purpose  of  my 
ideal,  and  soon  realised  that  nothing  was  to 
be  expected  of  the  politicians  who  surrounded 
Ruiz  Zorrilla;  they  were,  in  my  opinion,  with 
a  few  honourable  exceptions,  impenitent 
adventurers.  This  gave  rise  to  a  certain 
expression  which  the  judicial  authorities 
sought  to  use  to  my  disadvantage  in  circum- 
stances of  great  gravity  and  peril.  Zorrilla, 
a  man  of  lofty  views  and  not  sufficiently  on 


6  The  Modern  School 

his  guard  against  human  malice,  used  to  call 
me  an  "anarchist"  when  he  heard  me  put 
forward  a  logical  solution  of  a  problem;  at 
all  times  he  regarded  me  as  a  deep  radical, 
opposed  to  the  opportunist  views  and  the 
showy  radicalism  of  the  Spanish  revolution- 
aries who  surrounded  and  even  exploited 
him,  as  well  as  the  French  republicans,  who 
held  a  policy  of  middle-class  government  and 
avoided  what  might  benefit  the  disinherited 
proletariate,  on  the  pretext  of  distrusting 
Utopias. 

In  a  word,  during  the  early  years  of  the 
restoration  there  were  men  conspiring  with 
Ruiz  Zorrilla  who  have  since  declared  them- 
selves convinced  monarchists  and  conserva- 
tives; and  that  worthy  man,  who  protested 
earnestly  against  the  coup  oVEtat  of  January 
3,  1874,  confided  in  his  false  friends,  with  the 
result,  not  uncommon  in  the  political  world, 
that  most  of  them  abandoned  the  republican 
party  for  the  sake  of  some  office.  In  the 
end  he  could  count  only  on  the  support  of 
those  who  were  too  honourable  to  sell  them- 
selves, though  they  lacked  the  logic  to  develop 
his  ideas  and  the  energy  to  carry  out  his  work. 

In  consequence  of  this  I  restricted  myself 


The  Birth  of  My  Ideals  7 

to  my  pupils,  and  selected  for  my  purposes 
those  whom  I  thought  more  appropriate  and 
better  disposed.  Having  now  a  clear  idea 
of  the  aim  which  I  proposed  to  myself,  and  a 
certain  prestige  from  my  position  as  teacher 
and  my  expansive  character,  I  discussed 
various  subjects  with  my  pupils  when  the 
lessons  were  over;  sometimes  we  spoke  of 
Spanish  customs,  sometimes  of  politics,  re- 
ligion, art,  or  philosophy.  I  sought  always 
to  correct  the  exaggerations  of  their  judg- 
ments, and  to  show  clearly  how  mischievous 
it  is  to  subordinate  one's  own  judgment  to 
the  dogma  of  a  sect,  school,  or  party,  as  is  so 
frequently  done.  In  this  way  I  succeeded  in 
bringing  about  a  certain  agreement  among 
men  who  differed  in  their  creeds  and  views, 
and  induced  them  to  master  the  beliefs  which 
they  had  hitherto  held  unquestioningly  by 
faith,  obedience,  or  sheer  indolence.  My 
friends  and  pupils  found  themselves  happy 
in  thus  abandoning  some  ancient  error  and 
opening  their  minds  to  truths  which  uplifted 
and  ennobled  them. 

A  rigorous  logic,  applied  with  discretion, 
removed  fanatical  bitterness,  established  in- 
tellectual harmony,  and  gave,  to  some  extent 


8  The  Modern  School 

at  least,  a  progressive  disposition  to  their 
wills.  Freethinkers  who  opposed  the  Church 
and  rejected  the  legends  of  Genesis,  the  im- 
perfect morality  of  the  Gospels,  and  the 
ecclesiastical  ceremonies ;  more  or  less  oppor- 
tunist republicans  or  radicals  who  were  con- 
tent with  the  futile  equality  conferred  by  the 
title  of  citizen,  without  in  the  least  affecting 
class  distinctions;  philosophers  who  fancied 
they  had  discovered  the  first  cause  of  things 
in  their  metaphysical  labyrinths  and  estab- 
lished truth  in  their  empty  phrases — all  were 
enabled  to  see  the  errors  of  others  as  well  as 
their  own,  and  they  leaned  more  and  more  to 
the  side  of  common  sense. 

When  the  further  course  of  my  life  separated 
me  from  these  friends  and  brought  on  me  an 
unmerited  imprisonment,  I  received  many 
expressions  of  confidence  and  friendship  from 
them.  From  all  of  them  I  anticipate  useful 
work  in  the  cause  of  progress,  and  I  congratu- 
late myself  that  I  had  some  share  in  the 
direction  of  their  thoughts  and  endeavours. 


CHAPTER  II 

MLLE.   MEUNIER 

Among  my  pupils  was  a  certain  Mile.  Meu- 
nier,  a  wealthy  old  lady  with  no  dependents, 
who  was  fond  of  travel,  and  studied  Spanish 
with  the  object  of  visiting  my  country.  She 
was  a  convinced  Catholic  and  a  very  scrupu- 
lous observer  of  the  rules  of  her  Church.  To 
her,  religion  and  morality  were  the  same 
thing,  and  unbelief — or  "impiety,"  as  the 
faithful  say — was  an  evident  sign  of  vice  and 
crime. 

She  detested  revolutionaries,  and  she 
regarded  with  impulsive  and  undiscriminat- 
ing  aversion  every  display  of  popular  ignor- 
ance. This  was  due,  not  only  to  her  education 
and  social  position,  but  to  the  circumstance 
that  during  the  period  of  the  Commune  she 
had  been  insulted  by  children  in  the  streets 
of  Paris  as  she  went  to  church  with  her  mother. 
Ingenuous  and  sympathetic,  without  regard 

9 


io  The  Modern  School 

to  antecedents,  accessories,  or  consequences, 
she  always  expressed  her  dogmatic  convic- 
tions without  reserve,  and  I  had  many  oppor- 
tunities to  open  her  eyes  to  the  inaccuracy  of 
her  opinions. 

In  our  many  conversations  I  refrained 
from  taking  any  definite  side;  so  that  she 
did  not  recognise  me  as  a  partisan  of  any 
particular  belief,  but  as  a  careful  reasoner 
with  whom  it  was  a  pleasure  to  confer. 
She  formed  so  flattering  an  opinion  of  me, 
and  was  so  solitary,  that  she  gave  me  her 
full  confidence  and  friendship,  and  invited 
me  to  accompany  her  on  her  travels.  I 
accepted  the  offer,  and  we  travelled  in  various 
countries.  My  conduct  and  our  constant 
conversation  compelled  her  to  recognise  the 
error  of  thinking  that  every  unbeliever  was 
perverse  and  every  atheist  a  hardened 
criminal,  since  I,  a  convinced  atheist,  mani- 
fested symptoms  very  different  from  those 
which  her  religious  prejudice  had  led  her  to 
expect. 

She  thought,  however,  that  my  conduct 
was  exceptional,  and  reminded  me  that  the 
exception  proves  the  rule.  In  the  end  the 
persistency  and  logic  of  my  arguments  forced 


Mile.  Meunier  n 

her  to  yield  to  the  evidence,  and,  when  her 
prejudice  was  removed,  she  was  convinced 
that  a  rational  and  scientific  education  would 
preserve  children  from  error,  inspire  men 
with  a  love  of  good  conduct,  and  reorganise 
society  in  accord  with  the  demands  of  jus- 
tice. She  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  re- 
flection that  she  might  have  been  on  a  level 
with  the  children  who  had  insulted  her  if,  at 
their  age,  she  had  been  reared  in  the  same 
conditions  as  they.  When  she  had  given  up 
her  belief  in  innate  ideas,  she  was  greatly 
preoccupied  with  the  following  problem:  If 
a  child  were  educated  without  hearing  any- 
thing about  religion,  what  idea  of  the 
Deity  would  it  have  on  reaching  the  age  of 
reason? 

After  a  while,  it  seemed  to  me  that  we  were 
wasting  time  if  we  were  not  prepared  to  go 
on  from  words  to  deeds.  To  be  in  possession 
of  an  important  privilege  through  the  imper- 
fect organisation  of  society  and  by  the 
accident  of  birth,  to  conceive  ideas  of  reform, 
and  to  remain  inactive  or  indifferent  amid 
a  life  of  pleasure,  seemed  to  me  to  incur  a 
responsibility  similar  to  that  of  a  man  who 
refused  to  lend  a  hand  to  a  person  whom  he 


12  The  Modern  School 

could  save  from  danger.  One  day,  therefore. 
I  said  to  Mile.  Meunier: 

"Mile.,  we  have  reached  a  point  at  which 
it  is  necessary  to  reconsider  our  position. 
The  world  appeals  to  us  for  our  assistance, 
and  we  cannot  honestly  refuse  it.  It  seems 
to  me  that  to  expend  entirely  on  comforts 
and  pleasures  resources  which  form  part  of 
the  general  patrimony,  and  which  would 
suffice  to  establish  a  useful  institution,  is  to 
commit  a  fraud ;  and  that  would  be  sanctioned 
neither  by  a  believer  nor  an  unbeliever.  I 
must  warn  you,  therefore,  that  you  must  not 
count  on  my  company  in  your  further  travels. 
I  owe  myself  to  my  ideas  and  to  humanity, 
and  I  think  that  you  ought  to  have  the  same 
feeling  now  that  you  have  exchanged  your 
former  faith  for  rational  principles." 

She  was  surprised,  but  recognised  the 
justice  of  my  decision,  and,  without  other 
stimulus  than  her  own  good  nature  and  fine 
feeling,  she  gave  me  the  funds  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  institute  of  rational  education. 
The  Modern  School,  which  already  existed 
in  my  mind,  was  thus  ensured  of  realisation 
by  this  generous  act. 

All  the  malicious  statements  that  have  been 


Mile.  Meunier  13 

made  in  regard  to  this  matter — for  instance, 
that  I  had  to  submit  to  a  judicial  interroga- 
tion— are  sheer  calumnies.  It  has  been  said 
that  I  used  a  power  of  suggestion  over  Mile. 
Meunier  for  my  own  purposes.  This  state- 
ment, which  is  as  offensive  to  me  as  it  is 
insulting  to  the  memory  of  that  worthy  and 
excellent  lady,  is  absolutely  false.  I  do  not 
need  to  justify  myself;  I  leave  my  vindica- 
tion to  my  acts,  my  life,  and  the  impartial 
judgment  of  my  contemporaries.  But  Mile. 
Meunier  is  entitled  to  the  respect  of  all  men 
of  right  feeling,  of  all  those  who  have  been 
delivered  from  the  despotism  of  sect  and 
dogma,  who  have  broken  all  connection  with 
error,  who  no  longer  submit  the  light  of 
reason  to  the  darkness  of  faith,  nor  the  dignity 
of  freedom  to  the  yoke  of  obedience. 

She  believed  with  honest  faith.  She  had 
been  taught  that  between  the  Creator  and 
the  creature  there  is  a  hierarchy  of  inter- 
mediaries whom  one  must  obey,  and  that  one 
must  bow  to  a  series  of  mysteries  contained  in 
the  dogmas  imposed  by  a  divinely  instituted 
Church.  In  that  belief  she  remained  per- 
fectly tranquil.  The  remarks  I  made  and 
advice  I  offered  her  were  not  spontaneous 


14  The  Modern  School 

commentaries  on  her  belief,  but  natural  re- 
plies to  her  efforts  to  convert  me;  and,  from 
her  want  of  logic,  her  feeble  reasoning  broke 
down  under  the  strength  of  my  arguments, 
instead  of  her  persuading  me  to  put  faith 
before  reason.  She  could  not  regard  me  as  a 
tempting  spirit,  since  it  was  always  she  who 
attacked  my  convictions;  and  she  was  in 
the  end  vanquished  by  the  struggle  of  her 
faith  and  her  own  reason,  which  was  aroused 
by  her  indiscretion  in  assailing  the  faith  of 
one  who  opposed  her  beliefs. 

She  now  ingenuously  sought  to  exonerate 
the  Communist  boys  as  poor  and  uneducated 
wretches,  the  offspring  of  crime,  disturbers  of 
the  social  order,  on  account  of  the  injustice 
which,  in  face  of  such  a  disgrace,  permits 
others,  equal  disturbers  of  the  social  order, 
to  live  unproductive  lives,  enjoy  great  wealth, 
exploit  ignorance  and  misery,  and  trust  that 
they  will  continue  throughout  eternity  to 
enjoy  their  pleasures  on  account  of  their 
compliance  with  the  rites  of  the  Church  and 
their  works  of  charity.  The  idea  of  a 
reward  of  easy  virtue  and  punishment  of 
unavoidable  sin  shocked  her  conscience  and 
moderated  her  religious  feeling,  and,  seeking 


Mile.  Meunier  15 

to  break  the  atavistic  chain  which  so  much 
hampers  any  attempt  at  reform,  she  decided 
to  contribute  to  the  founding  of  a  useful 
work  which  would  educate  the  young  in  a 
natural  way  and  in  conditions  which  would 
help  them  to  use  to  the  full  the  treasures  of 
knowledge  which  humanity  has  acquired  by 
labour,  study,  observation,  and  the  method- 
ical arrangement  of  its  general  conclusions. 
In  this  way,  she  thought,  with  the  aid  of 
a  supreme  intelligence  which  veils  itself  in 
mystery  from  the  mind  of  man,  or  by  the 
knowledge  which  humanity  has  gained  by 
suffering,  contradiction,  and  doubt,  the 
future  will  be  realised;  and  she  found  an 
inner  contentment  and  vindication  of  her 
conscience  in  the  idea  of  contributing,  by  the 
bestowal  of  her  property,  to  a  work  of  tran- 
scendent importance. 


CHAPTER  III 

I  ACCEPT  THE  RESPONSIBILITY 

Once  I  was  in  possession  of  the  means  of 
attaining  my  object,  I  determined  to  put  my 
hand  to  the  task  without  delay. *  It  was  now 
time  to  give  a  precise  shape  to  the  vague 
aspiration  that  had  long  haunted  my  imag- 
ination; and  to  that  end,  conscious  of  my 
imperfect  knowledge  of  the  art  of  pedagogy, 
I  sought  the  counsel  of  others.  I  had  not  a 
great  confidence  in  the  official  pedagogists, 
as  they  seemed  to  me  to  be  largely  hampered 
by  prejudices  in  regard  to  their  subject  or 
other  matters,  and  I  looked  out  for  some  com- 
petent person  whose  views  and  conduct  would 
accord  with  my  ideals.  With  his  assistance 
I  would  formulate  the  programme  of  the  Mod- 
ern School  which  I  had  already  conceived. 

1  Mile.  Meunier  died,  leaving  about  £30,000  uncon- 
ditionally to  Ferrer,  before  he  returned  to  Spain  in  1900. 
— J.  M. 

16 


I  Accept  the  Responsibility     17 

In  my  opinion  it  was  to  be,  not  the  perfect 
type  of  the  future  school  of  a  rational  state 
of '  society,  but  a  precursor  of  it,  the  best 
possible  adaptation  of  our  means;  that  is  to 
say,  an  emphatic  rejection  of  the  ancient 
type  of  school  which  still  survives,  and  a 
careful  experiment  in  the  direction  of  im- 
buing the  children  of  the  future  with  the 
substantial  truths  of  science. 

I  was  convinced  that  the  child  comes  into 
the  world  without  innate  ideas,  and  that  dur- 
ing the  course  of  his  life  he  gathers  the  ideas 
of  those  nearest  to  him,  modifying  them 
according  to  his  own  observation  and  read- 
ing. If  this  is  so,  it  is  clear  that  the  child 
should  receive  positive  and  truthful  ideas  of 
all  things,  and  be  taught  that,  to  avoid  error, 
it  is  essential  to  admit  nothing  on  faith,  but 
only  after  experience  or  rational  demonstra- 
tion. With  such  a  training  the  child  will 
become  a  careful  observer,  and  will  be  pre- 
pared for  all  kinds  of  studies. 

When  I  had  found  a  competent  person,  and 
while  the  first  lines  were  being  traced  of  the 
plan  we  were  to  follow,  the  necessary  steps 
were  taken  in  Barcelona  for  the  founding  of 
the  establishment;  the  building  was  chosen 


1 8  The  Modern  School 

and  prepared,  and  the  furniture,  staff, 
advertisements,  prospectuses,  leaflets,  etc., 
were  secured.  In  less  than  a  year  all  was 
ready,  though  I  was  put  to  great  loss  through 
the  betrayal  of  my  confidence  by  a  certain 
person.  It  was  clear  that  we  should  at  once 
have  to  contend  with  many  difficulties,  not 
only  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  hostile  to 
rational  education,  but  partly  on  account  of 
a  certain  class  of  theorists,  who  urged  on 
me,  as  the  outcome  of  their  knowledge  and 
experience,  advice  which  I  could  regard  only 
as  the  fruit  of  their  prejudices.  One  man,  for 
instance,  who  was  afflicted  with  a  zeal  for 
local  patriotism,  insisted  that  the  lessons 
should  be  given  in  Catalan  [the  dialect  of  the 
province  of  Barcelona],  and  would  thus  con- 
fine humanity  and  the  world  within  the 
narrow  limits  of  the  region  between  the 
Ebro  and  the  Pyrenees.  I  would  not,  I  told 
the  enthusiast,  even  adopt  Spanish  as  the 
language  of  the  school  if  a  universal  language 
had  already  advanced  sufficiently  to  be  of 
practical  use.  I  would  a  hundred  times 
rather  use  Esperanto  than  Catalan. 

The  incident  confirmed  me  in  my  resolution 
not  to  submit  the  settlement  of  my  plan  to 


I  Accept  the  Responsibility      19 

the  authority  of  distinguished  men  who,  with 
all  their  repute,  do  not  take  a  single  voluntary 
step  in  the  direction  of  reform.  I  felt  the 
burden  of  the  responsibility  I  had  accepted, 
and  I  endeavoured  to  discharge  it  as  my 
conscience  directed.  Resenting  the  marked 
social  inequalities  of  the  existing  order  as  I 
did,  I  could  not  be  content  to  deplore  their 
effects;  I  must  attack  them  in  their  causes, 
and  appeal  to  the  principle  of  justice — to 
that  ideal  equality  which  inspires  all  sound 
revolutionary  feeling. 

If  matter  is  one,  uncreated,  and  eternal — 
if  we  live  on  a  relatively  small  body  in  space, 
a  mere  speck  in  comparison  with  the  innumer- 
able globes  about  us,  as  is  taught  in  the 
universities,  and  may  be  learned  by  the 
privileged  few  who  share  the  monopoly  of 
science — we  have  no  right  to  teach,  and  no 
excuse  for  teaching,  in  the  primary  schools  to 
which  the  people  go  when  they  have  the 
opportunity,  that  God  made  the  world  out 
of  nothing  in  six  days,  and  all  the  other 
absurdities  of  the  ancient  legends.  Truth 
is  universal,  and  we  owe  it  to  everybody.  To 
put  a  price  on  it,  to  make  it  the  monopoly 
of  a  privileged  few,  to  detain  the  lowly  in 


20  The  Modern  School 

systematic  ignorance,  and — what  is  worse — 
impose  on  them  a  dogmatic  and  official 
doctrine  in  contradiction  with  the  teaching  of 
science,  in  order  that  they  may  accept  with 
docility  their  low  and  deplorable  condition, 
is  to  me  an  intolerable  indignity.  For  my 
part,  I  consider  that  the  most  effective  pro- 
test and  the  most  promising  form  of  revolu- 
tionary action  consist  in  giving  the  oppressed, 
the  disinherited,  and  all  who  are  conscious 
of  a  demand  for  justice,  as  much  truth  as 
they  can  receive,  trusting  that  it  will  direct 
their  energies  in  the  great  work  of  the  regen- 
eration of  society. 

Hence  the  terms  of  the  first  announcement 
of  the  Modern  School  that  was  issued  to  the 
public.     It  ran  as  follows: 

Programme. 

The  mission  of  the  Modern  School  is  to  secure 
that  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  entrusted  to  it 
shall  become  well-instructed,  truthful,  just,  and 
free  from  all  prejudice. 

To  that  end  the  rational  method  of  the  natural 
sciences  will  be  substituted  for  the  old  dogmatic 
teaching.  It  will  stimulate,  develop,  and  direct 
the  natural  ability  of  each  pupil,  so  that  he  or 


I  Accept  the  Responsibility     21 

she  will  not  only  become  a  useful  member  of 
society,  with  his  individual  value  fully  developed, 
but  will  contribute,  as  a  necessary  consequence, 
to  the  uplifting  of  the  whole  community. 

It  will  instruct  the  young  in  sound  social 
duties,  in  conformity  with  the  just  principle 
that  "there  are  no  duties  without  rights,  and  no 
rights  without  duties." 

In  view  of  the  good  results  that  have  been 
obtained  abroad  by  mixed  education,  and  espe- 
cially in  order  to  realise  the  great  aim  of  the 
Modern  School — the  formation  of  an  entirely 
fraternal  body  of  men  and  women,  without 
distinction  of  sex  or  class — children  of  both 
sexes,  from  the  age  of  five  upward,  will  be 
received. 

For  the  further  development  of  its  work,  the 
Modern  School  will  be  opened  on  Sunday  morn- 
ings, when  there  will  be  classes  on  the  sufferings 
of  mankind  throughout  the  course  of  history, 
and  on  the  men  and  women  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  in  science,  art,  or  the  fight 
for  progress.  The  parents  of  the  children  may 
attend  these  classes. 

In  the  hope  that  the  intellectual  work  of  the 
Modern  School  will  be  fruitful,  we  have,  besides 
securing  hygienic  conditions  in  the  institution 
and  its  dependencies,  arranged  to  have  a  medical 
inspection  of  children  at  their  entrance  into  the 


22  The  Modern  School 

school.  The  result  of  this  will  be  communicated 
to  the  parents  if  it  is  deemed  necessary;  and 
others  will  be  held  periodically,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  spread  of  contagious  diseases  during  the 
school  hours. 

During  the  week  which  preceded  the 
opening  of  the  Modern  School  I  invited  the 
representatives  of  the  press  to  visit  the  insti- 
tution and  make  it  known,  and  some  of  the 
journals  inserted  appreciative  notices  of  the 
work.  It  may  be  of  historical  interest  to 
quote  a  few  paragraphs  from  El  Diluvio- 

The  future  is  budding  in  the  school.  To  build 
on  any  other  foundation  is  to  build  on  sand. 
Unhappily,  the  school  may  serve  either  the  pur- 
poses of  tyranny  or  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  may 
thus  serve  either  barbarism  or  civilisation. 

We  are  therefore  pleased  to  see  certain  patriots 
and  humanitarians,  who  grasp  the  transcendent 
importance  of  this  social  function,  which  our 
Government  systematically  overlooks,  hasten  to 
meet  this  pressing  need  by  founding  a  Modern 
School;  a  school  which  will  not  seek  to  promote 
the  interests  of  sect  and  to  move  in  the  old  ruts, 
as  has  been  done  hitherto,  but  will  create  an 
intellectual  environment  in  which  the  new  gen- 


I  Accept  the  Responsibility     23 

eration  will  absorb  the  ideas  and  the  im- 
pulses which  the  stream  of  progress  unceasingly 
brings. 

This  end  can  be  attained  only  by  private 
enterprise.  Our  existing  institutions,  tainted 
with  all  the  vices  of  the  past  and  weakened  by  all 
the  trivialities  of  the  present,  cannot  discharge 
this  useful  function.  It  is  reserved  for  men  of 
noble  mind  and  unselfish  feeling  to  open  up  the 
new  path  by  which  succeeding  generations  will 
rise  to  higher  destinies. 

This  has  been  done,  or  will  be  done,  by  the 
founders  of  the  modest  Modern  School  which  we 
have  visited  at  the  courteous  invitation  of  its 
directors  and  those  who  are  interested  in  its 
development.  This  school  is  not  a  commercial 
enterprise,  like  most  scholastic  institutions,  but  a 
pedagogical  experiment,  of  which  only  one  other 
specimen  exists  in  Spain  (the  Free  Institution  of 
Education  at  Madrid). 

Sr.  Salas  Anton  brilliantly  expounded  the  pro- 
gramme of  the  school  to  the  small  audience  of 
journalists  and  others  who  attended  the  modest 
opening-festival,  and  descanted  on  the  design 
of  educating  children  in  the  whole  truth  and 
nothing  but  the  truth,  or  what  is  proved  to  be 
such.  His  chief  theme  was  that  the  founders  do 
not  propose  to  add  one  more  to  the  number  of 
what  are  known  as  "Lay  Schools,"  with  their 


24  The  Modern  School 

impassioned  dogmatism,  but  a  serene  observa- 
tory, open  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven,  with  no 
cloud  darkening  the  horizon  and  interposing 
between  the  light  and  the  mind  of  man. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  EARLY  PROGRAMME 

The  time  had  come  to  think  of  the  inaugu- 
ration of  the  Modern  School.  Some  time 
previously  I  had  invited  a  number  of  gentle- 
men of  great  distinction  and  of  progressive 
sentiments  to  assist  me  with  their  advice  and 
form  a  kind  of  Committee  of  Consultation. 
My  intercourse  with  them  at  Barcelona  was 
of  great  value  to  me,  and  many  of  them 
remained  in  permanent  relation  with  me,  for 
which  I  may  express  my  gratitude.  They 
were  of  opinion  that  the  Modern  School 
should  be  opened  with  some  display — invita- 
tion cards,  a  circular  to  the  press,  a  large  hall, 
music,  and  oratorical  addresses  by  distin- 
guished Liberal  politicians.  It  would  have 
been  easy  to  do  this,  and  we  would  have 
attracted  an  audience  of  hundreds  of  people 
who  would  have  applauded  with  that  momen- 
tary enthusiasm  which  characterises  our 
25 


26  The  Modern  School 

public  functions.  But  I  was  not  seduced  by 
the  idea.  As  a  Positivist  and  an  idealist  I 
was  convinced  that  a  simple  modesty  best 
befitted  the  inauguration  of  a  work  of  reform. 
Any  other  method  seemed  to  me  disingenu- 
ous, a  concession  to  enervating  conventions 
and  to  the  very  evil  which  I  was  setting  out 
to  reform.  The  proposal  of  the  Committee 
was,  therefore,  repugnant  to  my  conscience 
and  my  sentiments,  and  I  was,  in  that  and 
all  other  things  relating  to  the  Modern  School, 
the  executive  power. 

In  the  first  number  of  the  Bulletin  of  the 
Modern  School,  issued  on  October  30,  1901, 
I  gave  a  general  exposition  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  School,  which  I  may  repeat 
here: 

Those  imaginary  products  of  the  mind,  a  priori 
ideas,  and  all  the  absurd  and  fantastical  fictions 
hitherto  regarded  as  truth  and  imposed  as 
directive  principles  of  human  conduct,  have  for 
some  time  past  incurred  the  condemnation  of 
reason  and  the  resentment  of  conscience.  The 
sun  no  longer  merely  touches  the  tips  of  the 
mountains;  it  floods  the  valleys,  and  we  enjoy 
the  light  of  noon.  Science  is  no  longer  the  pa- 
trimony of  a  small  group  of  privileged  individu- 


The  Early  Programme         2*j 

als;  its  beneficent  rays  more  or  less  consciously 
penetrate  every  rank  of  society.  On  all  sides 
traditional  errors  are  being  dispelled  by  it;  by 
the  confident  procedure  of  experience  and  obser- 
vation it  enables  us  to  attain  accurate  know- 
ledge and  criteria  in  regard  to  natural  objects  and 
the  laws  which  govern  them.  With  indisputable 
authority  it  bids  men  lay  aside  for  ever  their 
exclusivisms  and  privileges,  and  it  offers  itself 
as  the  controlling  principle  of  human  life,  seeking 
to  imbue  all  with  a  common  sentiment  of 
humanity. 

Relying  on  modest  resources,  but  with  a  robust 
and  rational  faith  and  a  spirit  that  will  not  easily 
be  intimidated,  whatever  obstacles  arise  in  our 
path,  we  have  founded  the  Modern  School. 
Its  aim  is  to  convey,  without  concession  to 
traditional  methods,  an  education  based  on  the 
natural  sciences.  This  new  method,  though  the 
only  sound  and  positive  method,  has  spread 
throughout  the  civilised  world,  and  has  innumer- 
able supporters  of  intellectual  distinction  and 
lofty  principles. 

We  are  aware  how  many  enemies  there  are 
about  us.  We  are  conscious  of  the  innumerable 
prejudices  which  oppress  the  social  conscience 
of  our  country.  This  is  the  outcome  of  a  medi- 
eval, subjective,  dogmatic  education,  which 
makes  ridiculous  pretensions  to  the  possession  of 


28  The  Modern  School 

an  infallible  criterion.  We  are  further  aware 
that,  in  virtue  of  the  law  of  heredity,  strength- 
ened by  the  influences  of  the  environment,  the 
tendencies  which  are  connatural  and  spontaneous 
in  the  young  child  are  still  more  pronounced  in 
adolescence.  The  struggle  will  be  severe,  the 
work  difficult ;  but  with  a  constant  and  unwaver- 
ing will,  the  sole  providence  of  the  moral  world, 
we  are  confident  that  we  shall  win  the  victory 
to  which  we  aspire.  We  shall  develop  living 
brains,  capable  of  reacting  on  our  instruction. 
We  shall  take  care  that  the  minds  of  our  pupils 
will  sustain,  when  they  leave  the  control  of  their 
teachers,  a  stern  hostility  to  prejudice;  that 
they  will  be  solid  minds,  capable  of  forming  their 
own  rational  convictions  on  every  subject. 

This  does  not  mean  that  we  shall  leave  the  child 
at  the  very  outset  of  its  education,  to  form  its 
own  ideas.  The  Socratic  procedure  is  wrong,  if  it 
is  taken  too  literally.  The  very  constitution  of 
the  mind,  at  the  commencement  of  its  develop- 
ment, demands  that  at  this  stage  the  child  shall 
be  receptive.  The  teacher  must  implant  the 
germs  of  ideas.  These  will,  when  age  and 
strength  invigorate  the  brain,  bring  forth  corre- 
sponding flowers  and  fruit,  in  accordance  with 
the  degree  of  initiative  and  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  pupil's  mind. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  may  say  that  we  regard 


The  Early  Programme  29 

as  absurd  the  widespread  notion  that  an  educa- 
tion based  on  natural  science  stunts  the  organ  of 
the  idealist  faculty.  We  are  convinced  that  the 
contrary  is  true.  What  science  does  is  to  correct 
and  direct  it,  and  give  it  a  wholesome  sense  of 
reality.  The  work  of  man's  cerebral  energy  is  to 
create  the  ideal,  with  the  aid  of  art  and  philo- 
sophy. But  in  order  that  the  ideal  shall  not 
degenerate  into  fables,  or  mystic  and  unsub- 
stantial dreams,  and  the  structure  be  not  built 
on  sand,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  give  it  a 
secure  and  unshakable  foundation  in  the  exact 
and  positive  teaching  of  the  natural  sciences. 
Moreover,  the  education  of  a  man  does  not 
consist  merely  in  the  training  of  his  intelligence, 
without  having  regard  to  the  heart  and  the  will. 
Man  is  a  complete  and  unified  whole,  in  spite  of 
the  variety  of  his  functions.  He  presents  various 
facets,  but  is  at  the  bottom  a  single  energy,  which 
sees,  loves,  and  applies  a  will  to  the  prosecution 
of  what  he  has  conceived  or  affected.  It  is  a 
morbid  condition,  an  infringement  of  the  laws 
of  the  human  organism,  to  establish  an  abyss 
where  there  ought  to  be  a  sane  and  harmonious 
continuity.  The  divorce  between  thought  and 
will  is  an  unhappy  feature  of  our  time.  To  what 
fatal  consequences  it  has  led!  We  need  only 
refer  to  our  political  leaders  and  to  the  various 
orders  of  social  life;  they  are  deeply  infected 


30  The  Modern  School 

with  this  pernicious  dualism.  Many  of  them  are 
assuredly  powerful  enough  in  respect  of  their 
mental  faculties,  and  have  an  abundance  of  ideas; 
but  they  lack  a  sound  orientation  and  the  fine 
thoughts  which  science  applies  to  the  life  of 
individuals  and  of  peoples.  Their  restless 
egoism  and  the  wish  to  accommodate  their 
relatives,  together  with  their  leaven  of  traditional 
sentiments,  form  an  impermeable  barrier  round 
their  hearts  and  prevent  the  infiltration  of  pro- 
gressive ideas  and  the  formation  of  that  sap  of 
sentiment  which  is  the  impelling  and  determin- 
ing power  in  the  conduct  of  man.  Hence  the 
attempt  to  obstruct  progress  and  put  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  new  ideas;  hence,  as  a  result  of 
these  attempts,  the  scepticism  of  multitudes, 
the  death  of  nations,  and  the  inevitable  despair 
of  the  oppressed. 

We  regard  it  as  one  of  the  first  principles  of  our 
pedagogical  mission  that  there  is  no  such  dual- 
ity of  character  in  any  individual — one  which 
sees  and  appreciates  truth  and  goodness,  and  one 
which  follows  evil.  And,  since  we  take  natural 
science  as  our  guide  in  education,  a  further  con- 
sequence will  be  recognised ;  we  shall  endeavour 
to  secure  that  the  intellectual  impressions  which 
science  conveys  to  the  pupil  shall  be  converted 
into  the  sap  of  sentiment  and  shall  be  intensely 
loved.     When  sentiment  is  strong  it  penetrates 


The  Early  Programme         31 

and  diffuses  itself  through  the  deepest  recesses  of 
a  man's  being,  pervading  and  giving  a  special 
colour  to  his  character. 

And  as  a  man's  conduct  must  revolve  within 
the  circle  of  his  character,  it  follows  that  a  youth 
educated  in  the  manner  we  have  indicated  will, 
when  he  comes  to  rule  himself,  recognise  science 
as  the  one  helpful  master  of  his  life. 

The  school  was  opened  on  September  8, 
1 90 1,  with  thirty  pupils — twelve  girls  and 
eighteen  boys.  These  sufficed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  our  experiment,  and  we  had  no  in- 
tention of  increasing  the  number  for  a  time, 
so  that  we  might  keep  a  more  effective 
watch  on  the  pupils.  The  enemies  of  the  new 
school  would  take  the  first  opportunity  to 
criticise  our  work  in  co-educating  boys  and 
girls. 

The  people  present  at  the  opening  were 
partly  attracted  by  the  notices  of  our  work 
published  in  the  press,  and  partly  consisted 
of  the  parents  of  the  pupils  and  delegates  of 
various  working-class  societies  who  had  been 
invited  on  account  of  their  assistance  to  me. 
I  was  supported  in  the  chair  by  the  teachers 
and  the  Committee  of  Consultation,  two  of 
whom  expounded  the  system  and  aim  of  the 


32  The  Modern  School 

school.  In  this  quiet  fashion  we  inaugurated 
a  work  that  was  destined  to  last.  We 
created  the  Modern,  Scientific,  and  Rational 
School,  the  fame  of  which  soon  spread  in 
Europe  and  America.  Time  may  witness 
a  change  of  its  name — the  "Modern" 
School — but  the  description  "scientific  and 
rational"  will  be  more  and  more  fully 
vindicated. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CO-EDUCATION  OF  THE  SEXES 

The  most  important  point  in  our  programme 
of  rational  education,  in  view  of  the  intellec- 
tual condition  of  the  country,  and  the  feature 
which  was  most  likely  to  shock  current  pre- 
judices and  habits,  was  the  co-education  of 
boys  and  girls. 

The  idea  was  not  absolutely  new  in  Spain. 
As  a  result  of  necessity  and  of  primitive  con- 
ditions, there  were  villages  in  remote  valleys 
and  on  the  mountains  where  some  good- 
natured  neighbour,  or  the  priest  or  sacristan, 
used  to  teach  the  catechism,  and  sometimes 
elementary  letters,  to  boys  and  girls  in 
common.  In  fact,  it  is  sometimes  legally 
authorised,  or  at  least  tolerated,  by  the  State 
among  small  populations  which  have  not 
the  means  to  pay  both  a  master  and  mistress. 
In  such  cases,  either  a  master  or  mistress 
gives  common  lessons  to  boys  and  girls,  as 
3  33 


34  The  Modern  School 

I  had  myself  seen  in  a  village  not  far  from 
Barcelona.  In  towns  and  cities,  however, 
mixed  education  was  not  recognised.  One 
read  sometimes  of  the  occurrence  of  it  in 
foreign  countries,  but  no  one  proposed  to 
adopt  it  in  Spain,  where  such  a  proposal 
would  have  been  deemed  an  innovation  of 
the  most  Utopian  character. 

Knowing  this,  I  refrained  from  making  any 
public  propaganda  on  the  subject,  and  con- 
fined myself  to  private  discussion  with  indi- 
viduals. We  asked  every  parent  who  wished 
to  send  a  boy  to  the  school  if  there  were 
girls  in  the  family,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
explain  to  each  the  reasons  for  co-education. 
Wherever  we  did  this,  the  result  was  satis- 
factory. If  we  had  announced  our  intention 
publicly,  it  would  have  raised  a  storm  of 
prejudice.  There  would  have  been  a  dis- 
cussion in  the  press,  conventional  feeling 
would  have  been  aroused,  and  the  fear  of 
"what  people  would  say" — that  paralysing 
obstacle  to  good  intentions — would  have  been 
stronger  than  reason.  Our  project  would 
have  proved  exceedingly  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible. Whereas,  proceeding  as  we  did,  we 
were  able  to  open  with  a  sufficient  number 


The  Co-Education  of  the  Sexes  35 

of  boys  and  girls,  and  the  number  steadily 
increased,  as  the  Bulletin  of  the  school  shows. 

In  my  own  mind,  co-education  was  of  vital 
importance.  It  was  not  merely  an  indis- 
pensable condition  of  realising  what  I  regard 
as  the  ideal  result  of  rational  education;  it 
was  the  ideal  itself,  initiating  its  life  in  the 
Modern  School,  developing  progressively 
without  any  form  of  exclusion,  inspiring  a 
confidence  of  attaining  our  end.  Natural 
science,  philosophy,  and  history  unite  in 
teaching,  in  face  of  all  prejudice  to  the  con- 
trary, that  man  and  woman  are  two  comple- 
mentary aspects  of  human  nature,  and  the 
failure  to  recognise  this  essential  and  impor- 
tant truth  has  had  the  most  disastrous 
consequences. 

In  the  second  number  of  the  Bulletin, 
therefore,  I  published  a  careful  vindication 
of  my  ideas: 

Mixed  education  [I  said]  is  spreading  among 
civilised  nations.  In  many  places  it  has  already 
had  excellent  results.  The  principle  of  this  new 
scheme  of  education  is  that  children  of  both 
sexes  shall  receive  the  same  lessons;  that  their 
minds  shall  be  developed,  their  hearts  purified, 
and  their  wills  strengthened  in  precisely  the  same 


36  The  Modern  School 

manner;  that  the  sexes  shall  be  in  touch  with 
each  other  from  infancy,  so  that  woman  shall  be, 
not  in  name  only,  but  in  reality  and  truth,  the 
companion  of  man. 

A  venerable  institution  which  dominates  the 
thoughts  of  our  people  declares,  at  one  of  the 
most  solemn  moments  of  life,  when,  with  cere- 
monious pomp,  man  and  woman  are  united  in 
matrimony,  that  woman  is  the  companion  of 
man.  These  are  hollow  words,  void  of  sense, 
without  vital  and  rational  significance  in  life, 
since  what  we  witness  in  the  Christian  Church, 
in  Catholicism  particularly,  is  the  exact  opposite 
of  this  idea.  Not  long  ago  a  Christian  woman 
of  fine  feeling  and  great  sincerity  complained 
bitterly  of  the  moral  debasement  which  is  put 
upon  her  sex  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church:  "It 
would  be  impious  audacity  for  a  woman  to  as- 
pire in  the  Church  even  to  the  position  of  the 
lowest  sacristan." 

A  man  must  suffer  from  ophthalmia  of  the 
mind  not  to  see  that,  under  the  inspiration  of 
Christianity,  the  position  of  woman  is  no  better 
than  it  was  under  the  ancient  civilisations;  it 
is,  indeed,  worse,  and  has  aggravating  circum- 
stances. It  is  a  conspicuous  fact  in  our  modern 
Christian  society  that,  as  a  result  and  culmina- 
tion of  our  patriarchal  development,  the  woman 
does  not  belong  to  herself;  she  is  neither  more 


The  Co-Education  of  the  Sexes  37 

nor  less  than  an  adjunct  of  man,  subject  con- 
stantly to  his  absolute  dominion,  bound  to  him — • 
it  may  be — by  chains  of  gold.  Man  has  made 
her  a  perpetual  minor.  Once  this  was  done,  she 
was  bound  to  experience  one  of  two  alternatives : 
man  either  oppresses  and  silences  her,  or  treats 
her  as  a  child  to  be  coaxed — according  to  the 
mood  of  the  master.  If  at  length  we  note  in  her 
some  sign  of  the  new  spirit,  if  she  begins  to  assert 
her  will  and  claim  some  share  of  independence, 
if  she  is  passing,  with  irritating  slowness,  from 
the  state  of  slave  to  the  condition  of  a  respected 
ward,  she  owes  it  to  the  redeeming  spirit  of 
science,  which  is  dominating  the  customs  of 
races  and  the  designs  of  our  social  rulers. 

The  work  of  man  for  the  greater  happiness 
of  the  race  has  hitherto  been  defective;  in 
future  it  must  be  a  joint  action  of  the  sexes; 
it  is  incumbent  on  both  man  and  woman, 
according  to  the  point  of  view  of  each.  It  is 
important  to  realise  that,  in  face  of  the  pur- 
poses of  life,  man  is  neither  inferior  nor  (as  we 
affect  to  think)  superior  to  woman.  They 
have  different  qualities,  and  no  comparison 
is  possible  between  diverse  things. 

As  many  psychologists  a*id  sociologists 
observe,  the  human  race  displays  two  funda- 


38  The  Modern  School 

mental  aspects.  Man  typifies  the  dominion 
of  thought  and  of  the  progressive  spirit; 
woman  bears  in  her  moral  nature  the  char- 
acteristic note  of  intense  sentiment  and  of  the 
conservative  spirit.  But  this  view  of  the 
sexes  gives  no  encouragement  whatever  to 
the  ideas  of  reactionaries.  If  the  predomi- 
nance of  the  conservative  element  and  of  the 
emotions  is  ensured  in  woman  by  natural 
law,  this  does  not  make  her  the  less  fitted  to 
be  the  companion  of  man.  She  is  not  pre- 
vented by  the  constitution  of  her  nature  from 
reflecting  on  things  of  importance,  nor  is  it 
necessary  that  she  should  use  her  mind  in 
contradiction  to  the  teaching  of  science  and 
absorb  all  kinds  of  superstitions  and  fables. 
The  possession  of  a  conservative  disposition 
does  not  imply  that  one  is  bound  to  crystallise 
in  a  certain  stage  of  thought,  or  that  one  must 
be  obsessed  with  prejudice  in  all  that  relates 
to  reality. 

"To  conserve"  merely  means  "to  retain," 
to  keep  what  has  been  given  us,  or  what  we 
have  ourselves  produced.  The  author  of 
The  Religion  of  the  Future  says,  referring  to 
woman  in  this  respect:  "The  conservative 
spirit  may  be  applied  to  truth  as  well  as  to 


The  Co-Education  of  the  Sexes  39 

error;  it  all  depends  what  it  is  you  conserve. 
If  woman  is  instructed  in  philosophical  and 
scientific  matters,  her  conservative  power 
will  be  to  the  advantage,  not  to  the  disad- 
vantage, of  progressive  thought." 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  pointed  out  that 
woman  is  emotional.  She  does  not  selfishly 
keep  to  herself  what  she  receives ;  she  spreads 
abroad  her  beliefs,  her  ideas,  and  all  the  good 
and  evil  that  form  her  moral  treasures.  She 
insists  on  sharing  them  with  all  those  who 
are,  by  the  mysterious  power  of  emotion, 
identified  with  her.  With  exquisite  art,  with 
invariable  unconsciousness,  her  whole  moral 
physiognomy,  her  whole  soul,  so  to  say,  im- 
presses itself  on  the  soul  of  those  she  loves. 

If  the  first  ideas  implanted  in  the  mind  of 
the  child  by  the  teacher  are  germs  of  truth 
and  of  positive  knowledge;  if  the  teacher 
himself  is  in  touch  with  the  scientific  spirit 
of  the  time,  the  result  will  be  good  from  every 
point  of  view.  But  if  a  man  be  fed  in  the 
first  stage  of  his  mental  development  with 
fables,  errors,  and  all  that  is  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  science,  what  can  be  expected  of  his 
future?  When  the  boy  becomes  a  man  he 
will  be  an  obstacle  to  progress.     The  human 


40  The  Modern  School 

conscience  is  in  infancy  of  the  same  natural 
texture  as  the  bodily  organism;  it  is  tender 
and  pliant.  It  readily  accepts  what  comes  to 
it  from  without.  In  the  course  of  time  this 
plasticity  gives  place  to  rigidity;  it  loses  its 
pliancy  and  becomes  relatively  fixed.  From 
that  time  the  ideas  communicated  to  it  by 
the  mother  will  be  encrusted  and  identified 
with  the  youth's  conscience. 

The  acid  of  the  more  rational  ideas  which 
the  youth  acquires  by  social  intercourse  or 
private  study  may  in  cases  relieve  the  mind  of 
the  erroneous  ideas  implanted  in  childhood. 
But  what  is  likely  to  be  the  practical  out- 
come of  this  transformation  of  the  mind  in 
the  sphere  of  conduct?  We  must  not  forget 
that  in  most  cases  the  emotions  associated 
with  the  early  ideas  remain  in  the  deeper 
folds  of  the  heart.  Hence  it  is  that  we  find 
in  so  many  men  such  a  flagrant  and  lament- 
able antithesis  between  the  thought  and  the 
deed,  the  intelligence  and  the  will;  and  this 
often  leads  to  an  eclipse  of  good  conduct  and 
a  paralysis  of  progress. 

This  primary  sediment  which  we  owe  to  our 
mothers  is  so  tenacious  and  enduring — it 
passes  so  intimately  into  the  very  marrow  of 


The  Co-Education  of  the  Sexes  41 

our  being — that  even  energetic  characters, 
which  have  effected  a  sincere  reform  of  mind 
and  will,  have  the  mortification  of  discov- 
ering this  Jesuitical  element,  derived  from 
their  mothers,  when  they  turn  to  make  an 
inventory  of  their  ideas. 

Woman  must  not  be  restricted  to  the  home. 
The  sphere  of  her  activity  must  go  out  far 
beyond  her  home ;  it  must  extend  to  the  very 
confines  of  society.  But  in  order  to  ensure 
a  helpful  result  from  her  activity  we  must  not 
restrict  the  amount  of  knowledge  we  commu- 
nicate to  her ;  she  must  learn,  both  in  regard 
to  quantity  and  quality,  the  same  things  as 
man.  When  science  enters  the  mind  of 
woman  it  will  direct  her  rich  vein  of  emotion, 
the  characteristic  element  of  her  nature,  the 
glad  harbinger  of  peace  and  happiness  among 
men. 

It  has  been  said  that  woman  represents 
continuity,  and  man  represents  change:  man 
is  the  individual,  woman  is  the  species. 
Change,  however,  would  be  useless,  fugitive, 
and  inconstant,  with  no  solid  foundation 
of  reality,  if  the  work  of  woman  did  not 
strengthen  and  consolidate  the  achievements 
of   man.     The   individual,    as   such,   is   the 


42  The  Modern  School 

flower  of  a  day,  a  thing  of  ephemeral  sig- 
nificance in  life.  Woman,  who  represents 
the  species,  has  the  function  of  retaining 
within  the  species  the  elements  which  improve 
its  life,  and  to  discharge  this  function  ade- 
quately she  needs  scientific  instruction. 

Humanity  will  advance  more  rapidly  and 
confidently  in  the  path  of  progress  and  in- 
crease its  resources  a  hundredfold  if  it  com- 
bines the  ideas  acquired  by  science  with  the 
emotional  strength  of  woman.  Ribot  observes 
that  an  idea  is  merely  an  idea,  an  act  of 
intelligence,  incapable  of  producing  or  doing 
anything,  unless  it  is  accompanied  by  an 
emotional  state,  a  motive  element.  Hence 
it  is  conceived  as  a  scientific  truth  that,  to 
the  advantage  of  progress,  an  idea  does  not 
long  remain  in  a  purely  contemplative  con- 
dition when  it  appears.  This  is  obviated 
by  associating  the  idea  with  emotion  and 
love,  which  do  not  fail  to  convert  it  into 
vital  action. 

When  will  all  this  be  accomplished?  When 
shall  we  see  the  marriage  of  ideas  with  the 
impassioned  heart  of  woman?  From  that 
date  we  shall  have  a  moral  matriarchate 
among  civilised  nations.     Then,  on  the  one 


The  Co-Education  of  the  Sexes  43 

hand,  humanity,  considered  in  the  home  circle, 
will  have  the  proper  teacher  to  direct  the 
new  generations  in  the  sense  of  the  ideal; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  will  have  an  apostle 
and  enthusiastic  propagandist  who  will  im- 
press the  value  of  liberty  on  the  minds  of 
men  and  the  need  of  co-operation  upon  the 
peoples  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CO-EDUCATION    OF   THE    SOCIAL   CLASSES 

There  must  be  a  co-education  of  the  different 
social  classes  as  well  as  of  the  two  sexes.  I 
might  have  founded  a  school  giving  lessons 
gratuitously;  but  a  school  for  poor  children 
only  would  not  be  a  rational  school,  since, 
if  they  were  not  taught  submission  and  cre- 
dulity as  in  the  old  type  of  school,  they  would 
have  been  strongly  disposed  to  rebel,  and 
would  instinctively  cherish  sentiments  of 
hatred. 

There  is  no  escape  from  the  dilemma. 
There  is  no  middle  term  in  the  school  for  the 
disinherited  class  alone;  you  have  either  a 
systematic  insistence,  by  means  of  false 
teaching,  on  error  and  ignorance,  or  hatred 
of  those  who  domineer  and  exploit.  It  is  a 
delicate  point,  and  needs  stating  clearly. 
Rebellion  against  oppression  is  merely  a 
question  of  statics,  of  equilibrium.  Between 
44 


Co-Education  of  Social  Classes    45 

one  man  and  another  who  are  perfectly  equal, 
as  is  said  in  the  immortal  first  clause  of  the 
famous  Declaration  of  the  French  Revolution 
("  Men  are  born  and  remain  free  and  equal  in 
rights  "),  there  can  be  no  social  inequality.  If 
there  is  such  inequality,  some  will  tyrannise, 
the  others  protest  and  hate.  Rebellion  is  a 
levelling  tendency,  and  to  that  extent  natural 
and  rational,  however  much  it  may  be  dis- 
credited by  justice  and  its  evil  companions, 
law  and  religion. 

I  venture  to  say  quite  plainly:  the  op- 
pressed and  the  exploited  have  a  right  to  rebel, 
because  they  have  to  reclaim  their  rights 
until  they  enjoy  their  full  share  in  the 
common  patrimony.  The  Modern  School, 
however,  has  to  deal  with  children,  whom  it 
prepares  by  instruction  for  the  state  of  man- 
hood, and  it  must  not  anticipate  the  cravings 
and  hatreds,  the  adhesions  and  rebellions, 
which  may  be  fitting  sentiments  in  the  adult. 
In  other  words,  it  must  not  seek  to  gather 
fruit  until  it  has  been  produced  by  cultiva- 
tion, nor  must  it  attempt  to  implant  a  sense 
of  responsibility  until  it  has  equipped  the 
conscience  with  the  fundamental  conditions  of 
such  responsibility.     Let  it  teach  the  children 


46  The  Modern  School 

to  be  men;  when  they  are  men,  they  may 
declare  themselves  rebels  against  injustice. 

It  needs  very  little  reflection  to  see  that  a 
school  for  rich  children  only  cannot  be  a  ra- 
tional school.  From  the  very  nature  of 
things  it  will  tend  to  insist  on  the  mainte- 
nance of  privilege  and  the  securing  of  their 
advantages.  The  only  sound  and  enlight- 
ened form  of  school  is  that  which  co-educates 
the  poor  and  the  rich,  which  brings  the  one 
class  into  touch  with  the  other  in  the  inno- 
cent equality  of  childhood,  by  means  of  the 
systematic  equality  of  the  rational  school. 

With  this  end  in  view  I  decided  to  secure 
pupils  of  every  social  rank  and  include  them 
in  a  common  class,  adopting  a  system  accom- 
modated to  the  circumstances  of  the  parents 
or  guardians  of  the  children;  I  would  not 
have  a  fixed  and  invariable  fee,  but  a  kind 
of  sliding  scale,  with  free  lessons  for  some  and 
different  charges  for  others.  I  later  pub- 
lished the  following  article  on  the  subject 
in  the  Bulletin  (May  10,  1905) : 

Our  friend  D.  R.  C.  gave  a  lecture  last  Sun- 
day at  the  Republican  Club  on  the  subject  of 
"Modern  Pedagogy,"  explaining  to  his  audience 


Co-Education  of  Social  Classes    47 

what  we  mean  by  modern  education  and  what 
advantages  society  may  derive  from  it.  As  I 
think  that  the  subject  is  one  of  very  great 
interest  and  most  proper  to  receive  public  atten- 
tion, I  offer  the  following  reflections  and  consid- 
erations on  it.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  lecturer 
was  happy  in  his  exposition  of  the  ideal,  but  not 
in  the  suggestions  he  made  with  a  view  to  realis- 
ing it,  nor  in  bringing  forward  the  schools  of 
France  and  Belgium  as  models  to  be  imitated. 

Senor  C,  in  fact,  relies  upon  the  State,  upon 
Parliament  or  municipalities,  for  the  building, 
equipment,  and  management  of  scholastic  insti- 
tutions. This  seems  to  me  a  great  mistake.  If 
modern  pedagogy  means  an  effort  towards  the 
realisation  of  a  new  and  more  just  form  of  society ; 
if  it  means  that  we  propose  to  instruct  the  rising 
generation  in  the  causes  which  have  brought 
about  and  maintain  the  lack  of  social  equili- 
brium ;  if  it  means  that  we  are  anxious  to  prepare 
the  race  for  better  days,  freeing  it  from  relig- 
ious fiction  and  from  all  idea  of  submission  to 
an  inevitable  socio-economic  inequality ;  we  can- 
not entrust  it  to  the  State  or  to  other  official 
organisms  which  necessarily  maintain  existing 
privileges  and  support  the  laws  which  at  present 
consecrate  the  exploitation  of  one  man  by  an- 
other, the  pernicious  source  of  the  worst  abuses. 

Evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  is  so  abundant 


48  The  Modern  School 

that  any  person  can  obtain  it  by  visiting  the 
factories  and  workshops  and  other  centres  of 
paid  workers,  by  inquiring  what  is  the  manner  of 
life  of  those  in  the  higher  and  those  in  the  lower 
social  rank,  by  frequenting  what  are  called 
courts  of  justice,  and  by  asking  the  prisoners  in 
our  penal  institutions  what  were  the  motives  for 
their  misconduct.  If  all  this  does  not  suffice 
to  prove  that  the  State  favours  those  who  are 
in  possession  of  wealth  and  frowns  on  those  who 
rebel  against  injustice,  it  may  be  useful  to  notice 
what  has  happened  in  Belgium.  Here,  accord- 
ing to  Senor  C,  the  government  is  so  attentive 
to  education  and  conducts  it  so  excellently  that 
private  schools  are  impossible.  In  the  official 
schools,  he  says,  the  children  of  the  rich  mingle 
with  the  children  of  the  poor,  and  one  may  at 
times  see  the  child  of  wealthy  parents  arm  in  arm 
with  a  poor  and  lowly  companion.  It  is  true, 
I  admit,  that  children  of  all  classes  may  attend 
the  Belgian  schools;  but  the  instruction  that  is 
given  in  them  is  based  on  the  supposed  eternal 
necessity  for  a  division  of  rich  and  poor,  and  on 
the  principle  that  social  harmony  consists  in  the 
fulfilment  of  the  laws. 

It  is  natural  enough  that  the  masters  should 
like  to  see  this  kind  of  education  given  on  every 
side.  It  is  a  means  of  bringing  to  reason  those 
who  might  one  day  be  tempted  to  rebel.     Not 


Co-Education  of  Social  Classes    49 

long  ago,  in  Brussels  and  other  Belgian  towns, 
the  sons  of  the  rich,  armed  and  organised  in 
national  troops,  shot  down  the  sons  of  the  poor 
who  were  claiming  universal  suffrage.  On  the 
other  hand,  my  acquaintance  with  the  quality  of 
Belgian  education  differs  considerably  from  that 
of  the  lecturer.  I  have  before  me  various  issues 
of  a  Belgian  journal  (L'Expres  de  Lilge)  which 
devotes  an  article  to  the  subject,  entitled  "The 
Destruction  of  our  National  System  of  Educa- 
tion. "  The  facts  given  are,  unfortunately, 
very  similar  to  the  facts  about  education  in 
Spain,  though  in  this  country  there  has  been  a 
great  development  of  education  by  religious 
orders,  which  is,  as  everybody  knows,  the  sys- 
tematisation  of  ignorance.  In  fine,  it  is  not  for 
nothing  that  a  violently  clerical  government  rules 
in  Belgium. 

As  to  the  modern  education  which  is  given  in 
French  schools,  we  may  say  that  not  a  single  one 
of  the  books  used  in  them  serves  the  purpose  of 
a  really  secular  education.  On  the  very  day 
on  which  Sefior  C.  was  lecturing  in  Gracia  the 
Parisian  journal  L 'Action  published  an  article, 
with  the  title  "  How  Secular  Morality  is  Taught," 
in  regard  to  the  book  Recueil  de  maximes  et 
pensees  morales,  and  quoted  from  it  certain 
ridiculously  anachronistic  ideas  which  offend 
the  most  elementary  common  sense. 
4 


50  The  Modern  School 

We  shall  be  asked,  What  are  we  to  do  if  we 
cannot  rely  on  the  aid  of  the  State,  of  Parliament, 
or  municipalities?  We  must  appeal  to  those 
whose  interest  it  is  to  bring  about  a  reform;  to 
the  workers,  in  the  first  place,  then  to  the  culti- 
vated and  privileged  people  who  cherish  senti- 
ments of  justice.  They  may  not  be  numerous, 
but  there  are  such.  I  am  personally  acquainted 
with  several.  The  lecturer  complained  that  the 
civic  authorities  were  so  dilatory  in  granting  the 
reforms  that  are  needed.  I  feel  sure  that  he 
would  do  better  not  to  waste  his  time  on  them, 
but  appeal  directly  to  the  working  class. 

The  field  has  been  well  prepared.  Let  him 
visit  the  various  working-men's  societies,  the 
Republican  Fraternities,  the  Centres  of  Instruc- 
tion, the  Workers'  Athenaeums,  and  all  the 
bodies  which  are  working  for  reform,1  and  let 
him  give  ear  to  the  language  of  truth,  the  exhor- 
tations to  union  and  courage.  Let  him  observe 
the  attention  given  to  the  problem  of  rational 
and  scientific  instruction,  a  kind  of  instruction 
which  shows  the  injustice  of  privilege  and  the 
possibility  of  reforms.  If  individuals  and  socie- 
ties continue  thus  to  combine  their  endeavours 

'These  societies  are  particularly  numerous  in  Spain, 
where  the  government  system  of  education  is  deplorable, 
and  schools  are  often  established  in  connection  with  them. 
— J.  M. 


Co-Education  of  Social  Classes    51 

to  secure  the  emancipation  of  those  who  suffer — 
for  it  is  not  the  workers  only  who  suffer — Sefior 
C.  may  rest  assured  of  a  positive,  sound,  and 
speedy  result,  while  whatever  may  be  obtained 
of  the  government  will  be  dilatory,  and  will 
tend  only  to  stupefy,  to  confuse  ideas,  and  to 
perpetuate  the  domination  of  one  class  over 
another. 


CHAPTER  VII 

SCHOOL  HYGIENE 

In  regard  to  hygiene  we  are,  in  Spain,  domi- 
nated by  the  abominable  ideas  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  Saint  Aloysius  and  Saint  Benedict 
J.  Labre  are  not  the  only,  or  the  most  char- 
acteristic, saints  in  the  list  of  the  supposed 
citizens  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  they 
are  the  most  popular  with  the  masters  of 
uncleanliness.  With  such  types  of  perfec- 
tion, J  in  an  atmosphere  of  ignorance,  cleverly 
and  maliciously  sustained  by  the  clergy  and 
the  middle-class  Liberals,  it  was  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  children  who  would  come  to 
our  school  would  be  wanting  in  cleanliness; 
dirt  is  traditional  in  their  world. 

We  began  a  discreet  and  systematic  cam- 
paign against  it,  showing  the  children  how  a 

JIt  is  especially  commended  in  the  life  of  Benedict  J. 
Labre"  and  others  that  they  deliberately  cultivated  filthi- 
ness  of  person. — J.  M. 

52 


School  Hygiene  53 

dirty  person  or  object  inspires  repugnance, 
and  how  cleanliness  attracts  esteem  and  sym- 
pathy; how  one  instinctively  moves  towards 
the  cleanly  person  and  away  from  the  dirty 
and  malodorous;  and  how  we  should  be 
pleased  to  win  the  regard  of  those  who  see  us 
and  ashamed  to  excite  their  disgust. 

We  then  explained  cleanliness  as  an  aspect  of 
beauty,  and  uncleanliness  as  a  part  of  ugliness ; 
and  we  at  length  entered  expressly  into  the 
province  of  hygiene,  pointing  out  that  dirt 
was  a  cause  of  disease  and  a  constant  possible 
source  of  infection  and  epidemic,  while  clean- 
liness was  one  of  the  chief  conditions  of  health. 
We  thus  soon  succeeded  in  disposing  the 
children  in  favour  of  cleanliness,  and  making 
them  understand  the  scientific  principles  of 
hygiene. 

The  influence  of  these  lessons  spread  to 
their  families,  as  the  new  demands  of  the 
children  disturbed  traditional  habits.  One 
child  would  ask  urgently  for  its  feet  to  be 
washed,  another  would  ask  to  be  bathed, 
another  wanted  a  brush  and  powder  for  its 
teeth,  another  new  clothes  or  boots,  and  so  on. 
The  poor  mothers,  burdened  with  their  daily 
tasks,  sometimes  crushed  by  the  hardness  of 


54  The  Modern  School 

the  circumstances  in  which  their  life  was 
passed,  and  probably  under  the  influence  of 
religious  teaching,  endeavoured  to  stop  their 
petitions;  but  in  the  end  the  new  life  intro- 
duced into  the  home  by  the  child  triumphed, 
a  welcome  presage  of  the  regeneration  which 
rational  education  will  one  day  accomplish. 
I  entrusted  the  expounding  of  the  principles 
of  scholastic  hygiene  to  competent  men,  and 
Dr.  Martinez  Vargas  and  others  wrote  able 
and  detailed  articles  on  the  subject  in  the 
Bulletin.  Other  articles  were  written  on  the 
subject  of  games  and  play,  on  the  lines  of 
modern  pedagogy. x 

'These  articles  are  reproduced  in  the  Spanish  edition. 
As  they  are  not  from  Ferrer's  pen,  I  omit  them. — J.  M. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  TEACHERS 

The  choice  of  teachers  was  another  point 
of  great  difficulty.  The  tracing  of  a  pro- 
gramme of  rational  instruction  once  accom- 
plished, it  remained  to  choose  teachers  who 
were  competent  to  carry  it  out,  and  I  found 
that  in  fact  no  such  persons  existed.  We 
were  to  illustrate  once  more  that  a  need 
creates  its  own  organs. 

Certainly  there  were  plenty  of  teachers. 
Teaching,  though  not  very  lucrative,  is  a 
profession  by  which  a  man  can  support  him- 
self. There  is  not  a  universal  truth  in  the 
popular  proverb  which  says  of  an  unfortunate 
man :  "He  is  hungrier  than  a  schoolmaster. " * 
The  truth  is  that  in  many  parts  of  Spain  the 
schoolmaster  forms  part  of  the  local  govern- 

'£20  a  year  is  a  not  uncommon  salary  of  masters  and 
mistresses  in  Spain,  and  many  cannot  obtain  even 
that.— J.  M. 

-    55 


56  The  Modern  School 

ing  clique,  with  the  priest,  the  doctor,  the 
shopkeeper,  and  the  money-lender  (who  is 
often  one  of  the  richest  men  in  the  place, 
though  he  contributes  least  to  its  welfare). 
The  master  receives  a  municipal  salary,  and 
has  a  certain  influence  which  may  at  times 
secure  material  advantages.  In  larger  towns 
the  master,  if  he  is  not  content  with  his  salary, 
may  give  lessons  in  private  schools,  where, 
in  accord  with  the  provincial  institute,  he 
prepares  young  men  for  the  University. 
Even  if  he  does  not  obtain  a  position  of  dis- 
tinction, he  lives  as  well  as  the  generality  of 
his  fellow- townsmen. 

There  are,  moreover,  teachers  in  what  are 
called  "secular  schools" — a  name  imported 
from  France,  where  it  arose  because  the 
schooling  was  formerly  exclusively  clerical 
and  conducted  by  religious  bodies.  This  is 
not  the  case  in  Spain;  however  Christian  the 
teaching  is,  it  is  always  given  by  lay  masters. 
However,  the  Spanish  lay  teachers,  inspired 
by  sentiments  of  freethought  and  political 
radicalism,  were  rather  anti-Catholic  and 
anti-clerical  than  Rationalist,  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word. 

Professional  teachers  have  to  undergo  a 


The  Teachers  57 

special  preparation  for  the  task  of  imparting 
scientific  and  rational  instruction.  This  is 
difficult  in  all  cases,  and  is  sometimes  ren- 
dered impossible  by  the  difficulties  caused  by 
habits  of  routine.  On  the  other  hand,  those 
who  had  had  no  pedagogical  experience,  and 
offered  themselves  for  the  work  out  of  pure 
enthusiasm  for  the  idea,  stood  in  even  greater 
need  of  preparatory  study.  The  solution  of 
the  problem  was  very  difficult,  because  there 
was  no  other  place  but  the  rational  school 
itself  for  making  this  preparation. 

The  excellence  of  the  system  saved  us. 
Once  the  Modern  School  had  been  established 
by  private  initiative,  with  a  firm  determina- 
tion to  be  guided  by  the  ideal,  the  difficulties 
began  to  disappear.  Every  dogmatic  imposi- 
tion was  detected  and  rejected,  every  excursion 
or  deviation  in  the  direction  of  metaphysics 
was  at  once  abandoned,  and  experience 
gradually  formed  a  new  and  salutary  peda- 
gogical science.  This  was  due,  not  merely  to 
my  zeal  and  vigilance,  but  to  my  earliest 
teachers,  and  to  some  extent  to  the  naive 
expressions  of  the  pupils  themselves.  We 
may  certainly  say  that  if  a  need  creates  an 
organ,  the  organ  speedily  meets  the  need. 


58  The  Modern  School 

Nevertheless,  in  order  to  complete  my 
work,  I  established  a  Rationalist  Normal 
School  for  the  education  of  teachers,  under 
the  direction  of  an  experienced  master  and 
with  the  co-operation  of  the  teachers  in  the 
Modern  School.  In  this  a  number  of  young 
people  of  both  sexes  were  trained,  and  they 
worked  excellently  until  the  despotic  authori- 
ties, yielding  to  our  obscure  and  powerful 
enemies,  put  a  stop  to  our  work,  and  flattered 
themselves  that  they  had  destroyed  it  for 
ever. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  REFORM  OF  THE  SCHOOL 

There  are  two  ways  open  to  those  who  seek 
to  reform  the  education  of  children.  They 
may  seek  to  transform  the  school  by  studying 
the  child  and  proving  scientifically  that  the 
actual  scheme  of  instruction  is  defective,  and 
must  be  modified;  or  they  may  found  new 
schools  in  which  principles  may  be  directly 
applied  in  the  service  of  that  ideal  which  is 
formed  by  all  who  reject  the  conventions,  the 
cruelty,  the  trickery,  and  the  untruth  which 
enter  into  the  bases  of  modern  society. 

The  first  method  offers  great  advantages, 
and  is  in  harmony  with  the  evolutionary  con- 
ception which  men  of  science  regard  as  the 
only  effective  way  of  attaining  the  end. 
They  are  right  in  theory,  as  we  fully  admit. 
It  is  evident  that  the  progress  of  psychology 
and  physiology  must  lead  to  important 
changes  in  educational  methods;  that  the 
59 


60  The  Modern  School 

teachers,  being  now  in  a  better  position  to 
understand  the  child,  will  make  their  teaching 
more  in  conformity  with  natural  laws.  I 
further  grant  that  this  evolution  will  proceed 
in  the  direction  of  greater  liberty,  as  I  am  con- 
vinced that  violence  is  the  method  of  ignorance, 
and  that  the  educator  who  is  really  worthy  of 
the  name  will  gain  everything  by  spontaneity ; 
he  will  know  the  child's  needs,  and  will  be 
able  to  promote  its  development  by  giving 
it  the  greatest  possible  satisfaction. 

In  point  of  fact,  however,  I  do  not  think 
that  those  who  are  working  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  humanity  have  much  to  hope  from  this 
side.  Rulers  have  always  taken  care  to 
control  the  education  of  the  people;  they 
know  better  than  any  that  their  power  is 
based  entirely  on  the  school,  and  they  there- 
fore insist  on  retaining  their  monopoly  of  it. 
The  time  has  gone  by  when  rulers  could 
oppose  the  spread  of  instruction  and  put 
limits  to  the  education  of  the  masses.  Such 
a  policy  was  possible  formerly  because 
economic  life  was  consistent  with  general 
ignorance,  and  this  ignorance  facilitated 
despotism.  The  circumstances  have  changed, 
however.     The  progress  of  science  and  our 


The  Reform  of  the  School      61 

repeated  discoveries  have  revolutionised  the 
conditions  of  labour  and  production.  It  is  no 
longer  possible  for  the  people  to  remain 
ignorant;  education  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  a  nation  to  maintain  itself  and  make 
headway  against  its  economic  competitors. 
Recognising  this,  the  rulers  have  sought  to 
give  a  more  and  more  complete  organisation 
to  the  school,  not  because  they  look  to  educa- 
tion to  regenerate  society,  but  because  they 
need  more  competent  workers  to  sustain 
industrial  enterprises  and  enrich  their  cities. 
Even  the  most  reactionary  rulers  have  learned 
this  lesson;  they  clearly  understand  that  the 
old  policy  was  dangerous  to  the  economic 
life  of  nations,  and  that  it  was  necessary 
to  adapt  popular  education  to  the  new 
conditions. 

It  would  be  a  serious  mistake  to  think  that 
the  ruling  classes  have  not  foreseen  the  danger 
to  themselves  of  the  intellectual  development 
of  the  people,  and  have  not  understood  that 
it  was  necessary  to  change  their  methods. 
In  fact,  their  methods  have  been  adapted  to 
the  new  conditions  of  life;  they  have  sought 
to  gain  control  of  the  ideas  which  are  in  course 
of   evolution.     They   have   endeavoured   to 


62  The  Modern  School 

preserve  the  beliefs  on  which  social  discipline 
had  been  grounded,  and  to  give  to  the  results 
of  scientific  research  and  the  ideas  involved 
in  them  a  meaning  which  will  not  be  to  the 
disadvantage  of  existing  institutions;  and  it 
is  this  that  has  induced  them  to  assume  con- 
trol of  the  school.  In  every  country  the 
governing  classes,  which  formerly  left  the 
education  of  the  people  to  the  clergy,  as  these 
were  quite  willing  to  educate  in  a  sense  of 
obedience  to  authority,  have  now  themselves 
undertaken  the  direction  of  the  schools. 

The  danger  to  them  consists  in  the  stimu- 
lation of  the  human  mind  by  the  new  spectacle 
of  life  and  the  possible  rise  of  thoughts  of 
emancipation  in  the  depths  of  their  hearts. 
It  would  have  been  folly  to  struggle  against  the 
evolving  forces;  the  effect  would  be  only 
to  inflame  them,  and,  instead  of  adhering  to 
earlier  methods  of  government,  they  would 
adopt  new  and  more  effective  methods.  It 
did  not  require  any  extraordinary  genius  to 
discover  the  solution.  The  course  of  events 
itself  suggested  to  those  who  were  in  power 
the  way  in  which  they  were  to  meet  the 
difficulties  which  threatened;  they  built 
schools,    they   sought   generously   to  extend 


The  Reform  of  the  School      63 

the  sphere  of  education,  and  if  there  were  at 
one  point  a  few  who  resisted  this  impulse — 
as  certain  tendencies  favoured  one  or  other 
of  the  political  parties — all  soon  understood 
that  it  was  better  to  yield,  and  that  the  best 
policy  was  to  find  some  new  way  of  defending 
their  interests  and  principles.  There  were 
then  sharp  struggles  for  the  control  of  the 
schools,  and  these  struggles  continue  to-day 
in  every  civilised  country;  sometimes  the 
republican  middle-class  triumphs,  sometimes 
the  clergy.  All  parties  appreciate  the  im- 
portance of  the  issue,  and  they  shrink  from 
no  sacrifice  to  win  the  victory.  "  The  school " 
is  the  cry  of  every  party.  The  public  good 
must  be  recognised  in  this  zeal.  Everybody 
seeks  to  raise  himself  and  improve  his  con- 
dition by  education.  In  former  times  it 
might  have  been  said:  "Those  people  want 
to  keep  thee  in  ignorance  in  order  the  better 
to  exploit  thee :  we  want  to  see  thee  educated 
and  free."  That  is  no  longer  possible; 
schools  of  all  kinds  rise  on  every  side. 

In  regard  to  this  general  change  of  ideas 
among  the  governing  classes  as  to  the  need  of 
schools,  I  may  state  certain  reasons  for  dis- 
trusting their  intentions  and  doubting  the 


64  The  Modern  School 

efficacy  of  the  means  of  reform  which  are 
advocated  by  certain  writers.  As  a  rule, 
these  reformers  care  little  about  the  social 
significance  of  education;  they  are  men  who 
eagerly  embrace  scientific  truth,  but  elimi- 
nate all  that  is  foreign  to  the  object  of  their 
studies.  They  are  patiently  endeavouring 
to  understand  the  child,  and  are  eager  to 
know — though  their  science  is  young,  it 
must  be  remembered — what  are  the  best 
methods  to  promote  its  intellectual 
development. 

This  kind  of  professional  indifference  is,  in 
my  opinion,  very  prejudicial  to  the  cause  they 
seek  to  serve.  I  do  not  in  the  least  think 
them  insensible  of  the  realities  of  the  social 
world,  and  I  know  that  they  believe  that  the 
public  welfare  will  be  greatly  furthered  by 
their  labours.  "Seeking  to  penetrate  the 
secrets  of  the  life  of  man, "  they  reflect,  "and 
unravelling  the  normal  process  of  his  physical 
and  psychic  development,  we  shall  direct 
education  into  a  channel  which  will  be  favour- 
able to  the  liberation  of  energy.  We  are 
not  immediately  concerned  with  the  reform 
of  the  school,  and  indeed  we  are  unable  to 
say  exactly  what  lines  it  should  follow.     We 


The  Reform  of  the  School      65 

will  proceed  slowly,  knowing  that,  from  the 
very  nature  of  things,  the  reform  of  the  school 
will  result  from  our  research.  If  you  ask 
us  what  are  our  hopes,  we  will  grant  that, 
like  you,  we  foresee  a  revolution  in  the  sense 
of  a  placing  of  the  child  and  humanity  under 
the  direction  of  science;  yet  even  in  this  case 
we  are  persuaded  that  our  work  makes  for 
that  object,  and  will  be  the  speediest  and 
surest  means  of  promoting  it." 

This  reasoning  is  evidently  logical.  No 
one  could  deny  this,  yet  there  is  a  considera- 
ble degree  of  fallacy  in  it,  and  we  must 
make  this  clear.  If  the  ruling  classes  have 
the  same  ideas  as  the  reformers,  if  they  are 
really  impelled  by  a  zeal  for  the  continuous 
reorganisation  of  society  until  poverty  is  at 
last  eliminated,  we  might  recognise  that  the 
power  of  science  is  enough  to  improve  the  lot 
of  peoples.  Instead  of  this,  however,  we  see 
clearly  that  the  sole  aim  of  those  who  strive 
to  attain  power  is  the  defence  of  their  own 
interests,  their  own  advantage,  and  the 
satisfaction  of  their  personal  desires.  For 
some  time  now  we  have  ceased  to  accept  the 
phrases  with  which  they  disguise  their  ambi- 
tions. It  is  true  that  there  are  some  in 
5 


66  The  Modern  School 

whom  we  may  find  a  certain  amount  of  sin- 
cerity, and  who  imagine  at  times  that  they 
are  impelled  by  a  zeal  for  the  good  of  their 
fellows.  But  these  become  rarer  and  rarer, 
and  the  positivism  of  the  age  is  very  severe 
in  raising  doubts  as  to  the  real  intentions  of 
those  who  govern  us. 

And  just  as  they  contrived  to  adapt  them- 
selves when  the  necessity  arose,  and  pre- 
vented education  from  becoming  a  danger, 
they  also  succeeded  in  organising  the  school 
in  accord  with  the  new  scientific  ideas  in  such 
a  way  that  nothing  should  endanger  their 
supremacy.  These  ideas  are  difficult  to 
accept,  and  one  needs  to  keep  a  sharp  look- 
out for  successful  methods  and  see  how  things 
are  arranged  so  as  to  avoid  verbal  traps. 
How  much  has  been,  and  is,  expected  of 
education!  Most  progressive  people  expect 
everything  of  it,  and,  until  recent  years,  many 
did  not  understand  that  instruction  alone 
leads  to  illusions.  Much  of  the  knowledge 
actually  imparted  in  schools  is  useless;  and 
the  hope  of  reformers  has  been  void  because 
the  organisation  of  the  school,  instead  of  serv- 
ing an  ideal  purpose,  has  become  one  of  the 
most  powerful  instruments  of  servitude  in 


The  Reform  of  the  School      67 

the  hands  of  the  ruling  class.  The  teachers 
are  merely  conscious  or  unconscious  organs 
of  their  will,  and  have  been  trained  on  their 
principles.  From  their  tenderest  years,  and 
more  drastically  than  anybody,  they  have 
endured  the  discipline  of  authority.  Very 
few  have  escaped  this  despotic  domination; 
they  are  generally  powerless  against  it, 
because  they  are  oppressed  by  the  scholastic 
organisation  to  such  an  extent  that  they  have 
nothing  to  do  but  obey.  It  is  unnecessary 
here  to  describe  that  organisation.  One  word 
will  suffice  to  characterise  it — Violence.  The 
school  dominates  the  children  physically, 
morally,  and  intellectually,  in  order  to  con- 
trol the  development  of  their  faculties  in  the 
way  desired,  and  deprives  them  of  contact 
with  nature  in  order  to  modify  them  as 
required.  This  is  the  explanation  of  the 
failure;  the  eagerness  of  the  ruling  class  to 
control  education  and  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
hopes  of  reformers.  "Education"  means  in 
practice  domination  or  domestication.  I  do 
not  imagine  that  these  systems  have  been  put 
together  with  the  deliberate  aim  of  securing 
the  desired  results.  That  would  be  a  work 
of  genius.     But  things  have  happened  just  as 


68  The  Modern  School 

if  the  actual  scheme  of  education  corre- 
sponded to  some  vast  and  deliberate  concep- 
tion; it  could  not  have  been  done  better. 
To  attain  it  teachers  have  inspired  themselves 
solely  with  the  principles  of  discipline  and 
authority,  which  always  appeal  to  social 
organisers;  such  men  have  only  one  clear 
idea  and  one  will — the  children  must  learn 
to  obey,  to  believe,  and  to  think  according  to 
the  prevailing  social  dogmas.  If  this  were 
the  aim,  education  could  not  be  other  than 
we  find  it  to-day.  There  is  no  question  of 
promoting  the  spontaneous  development  of 
the  child's  faculties,  or  encouraging  it  to 
seek  freely  the  satisfaction  of  its  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  needs.  There  is 
question  only  of  imposing  ready-made  ideas 
on  it,  of  preventing  it  from  ever  thinking 
otherwise  than  is  required  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  existing  social  institutions — of  mak- 
ing it,  in  a  word,  an  individual  rigorously 
adapted  to  the  social  mechanism. 

It  cannot  be  expected  that  this  kind  of 
education  will  have  any  influence  on  the 
progress  of  humanity.  I  repeat  that  it  is 
merely  an  instrument  of  domination  in  the 
hands  of  the  ruling  classes,  who  have  never 


The  Reform  of  the  School      69 

sought  to  uplift  the  individual,  and  it  is 
quite  useless  to  expect  any  good  from  the 
schools  of  the  present  day.  What  they  have 
done  up  to  the  present  they  will  continue  to 
do  in  the  future.  There  is  no  reason  what- 
ever why  they  should  adopt  a  different 
system ;  they  have  resolved  to  use  education 
for  their  purposes,  and  they  will  take  advan- 
tage of  every  improvement  of  it.  If  only 
they  preserve  the  spirit  of  the  school  and 
the  authoritative  discipline  which  rules  it, 
every  innovation  will  tend  to  their  advantage. 
For  this  they  will  keep  a  constant  watch, 
and  take  care  that  their  interests  are  secured. 
I  would  fix  the  attention  of  my  readers  on 
this  point:  the  whole  value  of  education 
consists  in  respect  for  the  physical,  intellec- 
tual, and  moral  faculties  of  the  child.  As  in 
science,  the  only  possible  demonstration  is 
demonstration  by  facts;  education  is  not 
worthy  of  the  name  unless  it  be  stripped  of  all 
dogmatism,  and  unless  it  leaves  to  the  child 
the  direction  of  its  powers  and  is  content  to 
support  them  in  their  manifestations.  But 
nothing  is  easier  than  to  alter  this  meaning 
of  education,  and  nothing  more  difficult 
than  to  respect  it.     The  teacher  is  always 


70  The  Modern  School 

imposing,  compelling,  and  using  violence; 
the  true  educator  is  the  man  who  does  not 
impose  his  own  ideas  and  will  on  the  child, 
but  appeals  to  its  own  energies. 

From  this  we  can  understand  how  easily 
education  is  conducted,  and  how  light  is  the 
task  of  those  who  seek  to  dominate  the 
individual.  The  best  conceivable  methods 
become  in  their  hands  so  many  new  and  more 
effective  means  of  despotism.  Our  ideal  is 
that  of  science ;  we  appeal  to  it  in  demanding 
the  power  to  educate  the  child  by  fostering 
|  its  development  and  procuring  a  satisfaction 
\  of  its  needs  as  they  manifest  themselves. 
We  are  convinced  that  the  education  of  the 
future  will  be  entirely  spontaneous.  It  is 
plain  that  we  cannot  wholly  realise  this,  but 
the  evolution  of  methods  in  the  direction  of 
a  broader  comprehension  of  life  and  the 
fact  that  all  improvement  involves  the  sup- 
pression of  violence  indicate  that  we  are  on 
solid  ground  when  we  look  to  science  for  the 
liberation  of  the  child. 

Is  this  the  ideal  of  those  who  actually 
control  the  scholastic  system?  Is  this  what 
they  propose  to  bring  about?  Are  they  eager 
to  abandon  violence?     Only  in  the  sense  that 


The  Reform  of  the  School      71 

they  employ  new  and  more  effective  methods 
to  attain  the  same  end — that  is  to  say,  the 
formation  of  individuals  who  will  accept  all 
the  conventions,  all  the  prejudices,  and  all  the 
untruths  on  which  society  is  based. 

We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  we  want 
men  who  will  continue  unceasingly  to  develop ; 
men  who  are  capable  of  constantly  destroying 
and  renewing  their  surroundings  and  renew- 
ing themselves;  men  whose  intellectual  inde- 
pendence is  their  supreme  power,  which  they 
will  yield  to  none;  men  always  disposed  for 
things  that  are  better,  eager  for  the  triumph 
of  new  ideas,  anxious  to  crowd  many  lives 
into  the  one  life  they  have.  Society  fears 
such  men;  you  cannot  expect  it  to  set  up  a 
system  of  education  which  will  produce 
them. 

What,  then,  is  our  mission?  What  is  the 
policy  we  must  adopt  in  order  to  contribute 
to  the  reform  of  the  school? 

Let  us  follow  closely  the  work  of  the  experts 
who  are  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  child, 
and  let  us  endeavour  to  find  a  way  of  apply- 
ing their  principles  to  the  education  we  seek 
to  establish,  aiming  at  an  increasingly  com- 
plete emancipation  of  the  individual.     But 


72  The  Modern  School 

how  are  we  to  do  this?  By  putting  our  hand 
energetically  to  the  work,  by  promoting  the 
establishment  of  new  schools  in  which,  as  far 
as  possible,  there  shall  rule  this  spirit  of  free- 
dom which,  we  feel,  will  colour  the  whole 
education  of  the  future. 

We  have  already  had  proof  that  it  leads 
to  excellent  results.  We  can  destroy  what- 
ever there  is  in  the  actual  school  that  savours 
of  violence,  all  the  artificial  devices  by  which 
the  children  are  estranged  from  nature  and 
life,  the  intellectual  and  moral  discipline 
which  has  been  used  to  impose  ready-made 
thoughts,  all  beliefs  which  deprave  and  ener- 
vate the  will.  Without  fear  of  injury  we 
may  place  the  child  in  a  proper  and  natural 
environment,  in  which  it  will  find  itself  in 
contact  with  all  that  it  loves,  and  where  vital- 
impressions  will  be  substituted  for  the  weari- 
some reading  of  books.  If  we  do  no  more 
than  this,  we  shall  have  done  much  towards 
the  emancipation  of  the  child. 

In  such  an  environment  we  may  freely 
make  use  of  the  data  of  science  and  work  with 
profit.  It  is  true  that  we  could  not  realise 
all  our  hopes;  that  often  we  shall  find  our- 
selves compelled,  from  lack  of  knowledge,  to 


The  Reform  of  the  School      73 

use  the  wrong  means.  But  we  shall  be  sus- 
tained by  the  confident  feeling  that,  without 
having  achieved  our  entire  aim,  we  shall 
have  done  a  great  deal  more  than  is  being 
done  by  the  actual  school.  I  would  rather 
have  the  free  spontaneity  of  a  child  who 
knows  nothing  than  the  verbal  knowledge 
and  intellectual  deformation  of  one  that 
has  experienced  the  existing  system  of 
education. 

What  we  have  sought  to  do  in  Barcelona 
is  being  done  by  others  in  various  places. 
All  of  us  saw  that  the  work  was  possible. 
Dedicate  yourself  to  it  at  once.  We  do  not 
hope  that  the  studies  of  children  will  be 
suspended  that  we  may  regenerate  the  school. 
Let  us  apply  what  we  know,  and  go  on  learn- 
ing and  applying.  A  scheme  of  rational 
education  is  already  possible,  and,  in  such 
schools  as  we  advocate,  the  children  may 
develop  freely  according  to  their  aspirations. 
Let  us  endeavour  to  improve  and  extend  the 
work. 

Those  are  our  aims.  We  know  well  the 
difficulties  we  have  to  face ;  but  we  have  made 
a  beginning  in  the  conviction  that  we  shall 
be  assisted  in  our  task  by  those  who  work 


74  The  Modern  School 

in  their  various  spheres  to  deliver  men  from 
the  dogmas  and  conventions  which  secure  the 
prolongation  of  the  present  unjust  arrange- 
ment of  society. 


v^ 


CHAPTER  X 

NO  REWARD  OR   PUNISHMENT 

Rational  education  is,  above  all  things,  a 
means  of  defence  against  error  and  ignorance. 
To  ignore  truth  and  accept  absurdities  is, 
unhappily,  a  common  feature  in  our  social 
order ;  to  that  we  owe  the  distinction  of  classes 
and  the  persistent  antagonism  of  interests. 
Having  admitted  and  practised  the  co-educa- 
tion of  boys  and  girls,  of  rich  and  poor — 
having,  that  is  to  say,  started  from  the  prin- 
ciple of  solidarity  and  equality — we  are  not 
prepared  to  create  a  new  inequality.  Hence 
in  the  Modern  School  there  will  be  no  rewards 
and  no  punishments;  there  will  be  no  exam- 
inations to  puff  up  some  children  with  the 
flattering  title  of  "excellent,"  to  give  others 
the  vulgar  title  of  "good,"  and  make  others 
unhappy  with  a  consciousness  of  incapacity 
and  failure. 

These  features  of  the  existing  official  and 
75 


76  The  Modern  School 

religious  schools,  which  are  quite  in  accord 
with  their  reactionary  environment  and  aim, 
cannot,  for  the  reasons  I  have  given,  be 
admitted  into  the  Modern  School.  Since 
we  are  not  educating  for  a  specific  purpose,  we 
cannot  determine  the  capacity  or  incapacity 
of  the  child.  When  we  teach  a  science,  or 
art,  or  trade,  or  some  subject  requiring  special 
conditions,  an  examination  may  be  useful, 
and  there  may  be  reason  to  give  a  diploma 
or  refuse  one;  I  neither  affirm  nor  deny  it. 
But  there  is  no  such  specialism  in  the  Modern 
School.  The  characteristic  note  of  the  school, 
distinguishing  it  even  from  some  which  pass 
as  progressive  models,  is  that  in  it  the  facul- 
ties of  the  children  shall  develop  freely 
without  subjection  to  any  dogmatic  patron, 
not  even  to  what  it  may  consider  the  body 
of  convictions  of  the  founder  and  teachers; 
every  pupil  shall  go  forth  from  it  into  social 
life  with  the  ability  to  be  his  own  master  and 
guide  his  own  life  in  all  things. 

Hence,  if  we  were  rationally  prevented 
from  giving  prizes,  we  could  not  impose 
penalties,  and  no  one  would  have  dreamed  of 
doing  so  in  our  school  if  the  idea  had  not  been 
suggested  from  without.     Sometimes  parents 


No  Reward  or  Punishment     77 

came  to  me  with  the  rank  proverb,  "Letters 
go  in  with  blood,"  on  their  lips,  and  begged 
me  to  punish  their  children.  Others  who 
were  charmed  with  the  precocious  talent  of 
their  children  wanted  to  see  them  shine  in 
examinations  and  exhibit  medals.  We  re- 
fused to  admit  either  prizes  or  punishments, 
and  sent  the  parents  away.  If  any  child 
were  conspicuous  for  merit,  application, 
laziness,  or  bad  conduct,  we  pointed  out  to 
it  the  need  of  accord,  or  the  unhappiness  of 
lack  of  accord,  with  its  own  welfare  and  that 
of  others,  and  the  teacher  might  give  a  lecture 
on  the  subject.  Nothing  more  was  done, 
and  the  parents  were  gradually  reconciled  to 
the  system,  though  they  often  had  to  be  cor- 
rected in  their  errors  and  prejudices  by  their 
own  children. 

Nevertheless,  the  old  prejudice  was  con- 
stantly recurring,  and  I  saw  that  I  had  to 
repeat  my  arguments  with  the  parents  of  new 
pupils.  I  therefore  wrote  the  following 
article  in  the  Bulletin: — 

The  conventional  examinations  which  we 
usually  find  held  at  the  end  of  a  scholastic  year, 
to  which  our  fathers  attached  so  much  import- 


78  The  Modern  School 

ance,  have  had  no  result  at  all;  or,  if  any  result, 
a  bad  one.  These  functions  and  their  accom- 
panying solemnities  seem  to  have  been  instituted 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  satisfying  the  vanity  of 
parents  and  the  selfish  interests  of  many  teachers, 
and  in  order  to  put  the  children  to  torture  before 
the  examination  and  make  them  ill  afterwards. 
Each  father  wants  his  child  to  be  presented  in 
public  as  one  of  the  prodigies  of  the  college,  and 
regards  him  with  pride  as  a  learned  man  in  minia- 
ture. He  does  not  notice  that  for  a  fortnight  or 
so  the  child  suffers  exquisite  torture.  As  things 
are  judged  by  external  appearances,  it  is  not 
thought  that  there  is  any  real  torture,  as  there 
is  not  the  least  scratch  visible  on  the  skin.    .    .    . 

The  parent's  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the 
natural  disposition  of  the  child,  and  the  iniquity 
of  putting  it  in  false  conditions  so  that  its  intel- 
lectual powers,  especially  in  the  sphere  of  mem- 
ory, are  artificially  stimulated,  prevent  the 
parent  from  seeing  that  this  measure  of  personal 
gratification  may,  as  has  happened  in  many 
cases,  lead  to  illness  and  to  the  moral,  if  not  the 
physical,  death  of  the  child. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of  teachers, 
being  mere  stereotypers  of  ready-made  phrases 
and  mechanical  inoculators,  rather  than  moral 
fathers  of  their  pupils,  are  concerned  in  these 
examinations  with  their  own  personality  and 


No  Reward  or  Punishment     79 

their  economic  interests.  Their  object  is  to  let 
the  parents  and  the  others  who  are  present  at  the 
public  display  see  that,  under  their  guidance,  the 
child  has  learned  a  good  deal,  that  its  knowledge 
is  greater  in  quantity  and  quality  than  could 
have  been  expected  of  its  tender  years  and  in 
view  of  the  short  time  that  it  has  been  under  the 
charge  of  this  very  skilful  teacher. 

In  addition  to  this  wretched  vanity,  which  is 
satisfied  at  the  cost  of  the  moral  and  physical 
life  of  the  child,  the  teachers  are  anxious  to  elicit 
compliments  from  the  parents  and  the  rest  of 
the  audience,  who  know  nothing  of  the  real  state 
of  things,  as  a  kind  of  advertisement  of  the 
prestige  of  their  particular  school. 

Briefly,  we  are  inexorably  opposed  to  holding 
public  examinations.  In  our  school  everything 
must  be  done  for  the  advantage  of  the  pupil. 
Everything  that  does  not  conduce  to  this  end 
must  be  recognised  as  opposed  to  the  natural 
spirit  of  positive  education.  Examinations  do 
no  good,  and  they  do  much  harm  to  the  child. 
Besides  the  illness  of  which  we  have  already 
spoken,  the  nervous  system  of  the  child  suffers, 
and  a  kind  of  temporary  paralysis  is  inflicted 
on  its  conscience  by  the  immoral  features  of  the 
examination :  the  vanity  provoked  in  those  who 
are  placed  highest,  envy  and  humiliation,  grave 
obstacles  to  sound  growth,  in  those  who  have 


80  The  Modern  School 

failed,  and  in  all  of  them  the  germs  of  most  of 
the  sentiments  which  go  to  the  making  of  egoism. 

In  a  later  number  of  the  Bulletin  I  found  it 
necessary  to  return  to  the  subject: — 

We  frequently  receive  letters  from  Workers' 
Educational  Societies  and  Republican  Frater- 
nities asking  that  the  teachers  shall  chastise  the 
children  in  our  schools.  We  ourselves  have  been 
disgusted,  during  our  brief  excursions,  to  find 
material  proofs  of  the  fact  which  is  at  the  base 
of  this  request;  we  have  seen  children  on  their 
knees,  or  in  other  attitudes  of  punishment. 

These  irrational  and  atavistic  practices  must 
disappear.  Modern  pedagogy  entirely  discredits 
them.  The  teachers  who  offer  their  services  to 
the  Modern  School,  or  ask  our  recommendation 
to  teach  in  similar  schools,  must  refrain  from  any 
moral  or  material  punishment,  under  penalty  of 
being  disqualified  permanently.  Scolding,  im- 
patience, and  anger  ought  to  disappear  with  the 
ancient  title  of  "master."  In  free  schools  all 
should  be  peace,  gladness,  and  fraternity. 
We  trust  that  this  will  suffice  to  put  an  end 
to  these  practices,  which  are  most  improper 
in  people  whose  sole  ideal  is  the  training  of  a 
generation  fitted  to  establish  a  really  fraternal, 
harmonious,  and  just  state  of  society. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  GENERAL  PUBLIC  AND  THE  LIBRARY 

In  setting  out  to  establish  a  rational  school 
for  the  purpose  of  preparing  children  for  their 
entry  into  free  solidarity  of  humanity,  the 
first  problem  that  confronted  us  was  the  selec- 
tion of  books.  The  whole  educational  lug- 
gage of  the  ancient  system  was  an  incoherent 
mixture  of  science  and  faith,  reason  and  un- 
reason, good  and  evil,  human  experience  and 
revelation,  truth  and  error;  in  a  word,  totally 
unsuited  to  meet  the  new  needs  that  arose 
with  the  formation  of  a  new  school. 

If  the  school  has  been  from  remote  anti- 
quity equipped  not  for  teaching  in  the  broad 
sense  of  communicating  to  the  rising  genera- 
tion the  gist  of  the  knowledge  of  previous 
generations,  but  for  teaching  on  the  basis 
of  authority  and  the  convenience  of  the  rul- 
ing classes,  for  the  purpose  of  making 
children  humble  and  submissive,  it  is  clear 
0  81 


82  The  Modern  School 

that  none  of  the  books  hitherto  used  would 
suit  us.  But  the  severe  logic  of  this  position 
did  not  at  once  convince  me.  I  refused  to 
believe  that  the  French  democracy,  which 
worked  so  zealously  for  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State,  incurred  the  anger  of  the 
clericals,  and  adopted  obligatory  secular 
instruction,  would  resign  itself  to  a  semi- 
education  or  a  sophisticated  education.  I 
had,  however,  to  yield  to  the  evidence,  against 
my  prejudice.  I  first  read  a  large  number  of 
works  in  the  French  code  of  secular  instruc- 
tion, and  found  that  God  was  replaced  by  the 
State,  Christian  virtue  by  civic  duty,  religion 
by  patriotism,  submission  to  the  king,  the 
aristocracy,  and  the  clergy  by  subservience 
to  the  official,  the  proprietor,  and  the  em- 
ployer. Then  I  consulted  an  eminent  Free- 
thinker who  held  high  office  in  the  Ministry  of 
Public  Instruction,  and,  when  I  had  told  him 
my  desire  to  see  the  books  they  used,  which 
I  understood  to  be  purged  of  traditional  errors, 
and  explained  my  design  and  ideal  to  him,  he 
told  me  frankly  that  they  had  nothing  of  the 
sort;  all  their  books  were,  more  or  less 
cleverly  and  insidiously,  tainted  with  untruth, 
which  is  the  indispensable  cement  of  social 


General  Public  and  the  Library    83 

inequality.  When  I  further  asked  if,  seeing 
that  they  had  replaced  the  decaying  idol  of 
deity  by  the  idol  of  oligarchic  despotism,  they 
had  not  at  least  some  book  dealing  with  the 
origin  of  religion,  he  said  that  there  was  none ; 
but  he  knew  one  which  would  suit  me — 
Malvert's  Science  and  Religion.  In  point  of 
fact,  this  was  already  translated  into  Spanish, 
and  was  used  as  a  reading-book  in  the  Modern 
School,  with  the  title  Origin  of  Christianity. 

In  Spanish  literature  I  found  several  works 
written  by  a  distinguished  author,  of  some 
eminence  in  science,  who  had  produced  them 
rather  in  the  interest  of  the  publishers  than 
with  a  view  to  the  education  of  children. 
Some  of  these  were  at  first  used  in  the  Modern 
School,  but,  though  one  could  not  accuse 
them  of  error,  they  lacked  the  inspiration  of 
an  ideal  and  were  poor  in  method.  I  com- 
municated with  this  author  with  a  view  to 
interesting  him  in  my  plans  and  inducing 
him  to  write  books  for  me,  but  his  publishers 
held  him  to  a  certain  contract  and  he  could 
not  oblige  me. 

In  brief,  the  Modern  School  was  opened 
before  a  single  work  had  been  chosen  for  its 
library,  but  it  was  not  long  before  the  first 


84  The  Modern  School 

appeared — a  brilliant  book  by  Jean  Grave, 
which  has  had  a  considerable  influence  on  our 
schools.  His  work,  The  Adventures  of  Nono, 
is  a  kind  of  poem  in  which  a  certain  phase  of 
the  happier  future  is  ingeniously  and  dramati- 
cally contrasted  with  the  sordid  realities  of 
the  present  social  order;  the  delights  of  the 
land  of  Autonomy  are  contrasted  with  the 
horrors  of  the  kingdom  of  Argirocracy. 
The  genius  of  Grave  has  raised  the  work  to  a 
height  at  which  it  escapes  the  strictures  of 
the  sceptical  and  conservative;  he  has 
depicted  the  social  evils  of  the  present  truth- 
fully and  without  exaggeration.  The  read- 
ing of  the  book  enchanted  the  children,  and 
the  profundity  of  his  thought  suggested  many 
opportune  comments  to  the  teachers.  In 
their  play  the  children  used  to  act  scenes  from 
Autonomy,  and  their  parents  detected  the 
causes  of  their  hardships  in  the  constitution 
of  the  kingdom  of  Argirocracy. 

It  was  announced  in  the  Bulletin  and  other 
journals  that  prizes  were  offered  for  the  best 
manuals  of  rational  instruction,  but  no  writers 
came  forward.  I  confine  myself  to  recording 
the  fact  without  going  into  the  causes  of  it. 
Two  books  were  afterwards  adopted  for  read- 


General  Public  and  the  Library    85 

ing  in  school.  They  were  not  written  for 
school,  but  they  were  translated  for  the 
Modern  School  and  were  very  useful.  One 
was  called  The  Note  Book,  the  other  Colonisa- 
tion and  Patriotism.  Both  were  collections 
of  passages  from  writers  of  every  country  on 
the  injustices  connected  with  patriotism,  the 
horrors  of  war,  and  the  iniquity  of  conquest. 
The  choice  of  these  works  was  vindicated  by 
the  excellent  influence  they  had  on  the  minds 
of  the  children,  as  we  shall  see  from  the  little 
essays  of  the  children  which  appeared  in  the 
Bulletin,  and  the  fury  with  which  they  were 
denounced  by  the  reactionary  press  and 
politicians. 

Many  think  that  there  is  not  much  differ- 
ence between  secular  and  rationalist  educa- 
tion, and  in  various  articles  and  propagandist 
speeches  the  two  were  taken  to  be  synonym- 
ous. In  order  to  correct  this  error  I  pub- 
lished the  following  article  in  the  Bulletin: — 

The  word  education  should  not  be  accompanied 
by  any  qualification.  It  means  simply  the  need 
and  duty  of  the  generation  which  is  in  the  full 
development  of  its  powers  to  prepare  the  rising 
generation  and  admit  it  to  the  patrimony  of 
human  knowledge.     This  is  an  entirely  rational 


86  The  Modern  School 

ideal,  and  it  will  be  fully  realised  in  some  future 
age,  when  men  are  wholly  freed  from  their  pre- 
judices and  superstitions. 

In  our  efforts  to  realise  this  ideal  we  find  our- 
selves confronted  with  religious  education  and 
political  education:  to  these  we  must  oppose 
rational  and  scientific  instruction.  The  type 
of  religious  education  is  that  given  in  the  clerical 
and  convent  schools  of  all  countries;  it  consists 
of  the  smallest  possible  quantity  of  useful  know- 
ledge and  a  good  deal  of  Christian  doctrine  and 
sacred  history.  Political  education  is  the  kind 
established  some  time  ago  in  France,  after  the 
fall  of  the  Empire,  the  object  of  which  is  to 
exalt  patriotism  and  represent  the  actual  public 
administration  as  the  instrument  of  the  common 
welfare. 

Sometimes  the  qualification  free  or  secular  is 
applied  abusively  and  maliciously  to  education, 
in  order  to  distract  or  alienate  public  opinion. 
Orthodox  people,  for  instance,  call  free  schools 
certain  schools  which  they  establish  in  opposition 
to  the  really  free  tendency  of  modern  pedagogy ; 
and  many  are  called  secular  schools  which  are 
really  political,  patriotic,  and  anti-humanitarian. 

Rational  education  is  lifted  above  these  illib- 
eral forms.  It  has,  in  the  first  place,  no  regard 
to  religious  education,  because  science  has  shown 
that  the  story  of  creation  is  a  myth  and  the  gods 


General  Public  and  the  Library    87 

legendary;  and  therefore  religious  education 
takes  advantage  of  the  credulity  of  the  parents 
and  the  ignorance  of  the  children,  maintaining 
the  belief  in  a  supernatural  being  to  whom 
people  may  address  all  kinds  of  prayers.  This 
ancient  belief,  still  unfortunately  widespread, 
has  done  a  great  deal  of  harm,  and  will  continue 
to  do  so  as  long  as  it  persists.  The  mission  of 
education  is  to  show  the  child,  by  purely  scien- 
tific methods,  that  the  more  knowledge  we  have 
of  natural  products,  their  qualities,  and  the  way 
to  use  them,  the  more  industrial,  scientific,  and 
artistic  commodities  we  shall  have  for  the  sup- 
port and  comfort  of  life,  and  men  and  women 
will  issue  in  larger  numbers  from  our  schools 
with  a  determination  to  cultivate  every  branch 
of  knowledge  and  action,  under  the  guidance  of 
reason  and  the  inspiration  of  science  and  art, 
which  will  adorn  life  and  reform  society. 

We  will  not,  therefore,  lose  our  time  praying  to 
an  imaginary  God  for  things  which  our  own  exer- 
tions alone  can  procure. 

On  the  other  hand,  our  teaching  has  nothing  to 
do  with  politics.  It  is  our  work  to  form  individ- 
uals in  the  full  possession  of  all  their  faculties, 
while  politics  would  subject  their  faculties  to 
other  men.  While  religion  has,  with  its  divine 
power,  created  a  positively  abusive  power  and 
retarded  the  development  of  humanity,  political 


88  The  Modern  School 

systems  also  retard  it  by  encouraging  men  to 
depend  for  everything  on  the  will  of  others,  on 
what  are  supposed  to  be  men  of  a  superior 
character — on  those,  in  a  word,  who,  from  tradi- 
tion or  choice,  exercise  the  profession  of  politics. 
It  must  be  the  aim  of  the  rational  schools  to 
show  the  children  that  there  will  be  tyranny  and 
slavery  as  long  as  one  man  depends  upon  another, 
to  study  the  causes  of  the  prevailing  ignorance, 
to  learn  the  origin  of  all  the  traditional  practices 
which  give  life  to  the  existing  social  system,  and  to 
direct  the  attention  of  the  pupils  to  these  matters. 

We  will  not,  therefore,  lose  our  time  seeking  from 
others  what  we  can  get  for  ourselves. 

In  a  word,  our  business  is  to  imprint  on  the 
minds  of  the  children  the  idea  that  their  condi- 
tion in  the  social  order  will  improve  in  proportion 
to  their  knowledge  and  to  the  strength  they  are 
able  to  develop;  and  that  the  era  of  general 
happiness  will  be  the  more  sure  to  dawn  when 
they  have  discarded  all  religious  and  other  super- 
stitions, which  have  up  to  the  present  done  so 
much  harm.  On  that  account  there  are  no  re- 
wards or  punishments  in  our  schools;  no  alms, 
no  medals  or  badges  in  imitation  of  the  religious 
and  patriotic  schools,  which  might  encourage  the 
children  to  believe  in  talismans  instead  of  in  the 
individual  and  collective  power  of  beings  who  are 
conscious  of  their  ability  and  knowledge. 


General  Public  and  the  Library    89 

Rational  and  scientific  knowledge  must  per- 
suade the  men  and  women  of  the  future  that 
they  have  to  expect  nothing  from  any  privileged 
being  (fictitious  or  real);  and  that  they  may 
expect  all  that  is  reasonable  from  themselves 
and  from  a  freely  organised  and  accepted  social 
order. 

I  then  appealed  in  the  Bulletin  and  the 
local  press  to  scientific  writers  who  were  eager 
for  the  progress  of  the  race  to  supply  us  with 
text-books  on  these  lines.  They  were,  I 
said,  "to  deliver  the  minds  of  the  pupils 
from  all  the  errors  of  our  ancestors,  encourage 
them  in  the  love  of  truth  and  beauty,  and 
keep  from  them  the  authoritarian  dogmas, 
venerable  sophisms,  and  ridiculous  conven- 
tionalities which  at  present  disgrace  our  social 
life."  A  special  note  was  added  in  regard 
to  the  teaching  of  arithmetic: — 

The  way  in  which  arithmetic  has  hitherto 
been  generally  taught  has  made  it  a  powerful 
instrument  for  impressing  the  pupils  with  the 
false  ideals  of  the  capitalist  regime  which  at 
present  presses  so  heavily  on  society.  The 
Modern  School,  therefore,  invites  essays  on  the 
subject  of  the  reform  of  the  teaching  of  arith- 


90  The  Modern  School 

metic,  and  requests  those  friends  of  rational  and 
scientific  instruction  who  are  especially  occupied 
with  mathematics  to  draw  up  a  series  of  easy 
and  practical  problems,  in  which  there  shall  be 
no  reference  to  wages,  economy,  and  profit. 
These  exercises  must  deal  with  agricultural  and 
industrial  production,  the  just  distribution  of 
the  raw  material  and  the  manufactured  articles, 
the  means  of  communication,  the  transport  of 
merchandise,  the  comparison  of  human  labour 
with  mechanical,  the  benefits  of  machinery, 
public  works,  etc.  In  a  word,  the  Modern  School 
wants  a  number  of  problems  showing  what  arith- 
metic really  ought  to  be — the  science  of  the 
social  economy  (taking  the  word  economy  in  its 
etymological  sense  of  "good  distribution"). 

The  exercises  will  deal  with  the  four  funda- 
mental operations  (integrals,  decimals,  and 
fractions),  the  metrical  system,  proportion, 
compounds  and  alloys,  the  squares  and  cubes  of 
numbers,  and  the  extraction  of  square  and  cube 
roots.  As  those  who  respond  to  this  appeal  are, 
it  is  hoped,  inspired  rather  with  the  ideal  of  a 
right  education  of  children  than  with  the  desire 
of  profit,  and  as  we  wish  to  avoid  the  common 
practice  in  such  circumstances,  we  shall  not 
appoint  judges  or  offer  any  prizes.  The  Modern 
School  will  publish  the  Arithmetic  which  best 
serves    its    purpose,    and    will    come    to    an 


General  Public  and  the  Library    91 

amicable  agreement  with  the  author  as  to  his 
fee. 

A  later  note  in  the  Bulletin  was  addressed  to 
teachers : — 

We  would  call  the  attention  of  all  who  dedicate 
themselves  to  the  noble  ideal  of  the  rational 
teaching  of  children  and  the  preparation  of  the 
young  to  take  a  fitting  share  in  life  to  the 
announcements  of  a  Compendium  of  Universal 
History  by  C16mence  Jacquinet,  and  The  Adven- 
tures of  Nono  by  Jean  Grave,  which  will  be  found 
on  the  cover.1  The  works  which  the  Modern 
School  has  published  or  proposes  to  publish 
are  intended  for  all  free  and  rational  teaching 
institutions,  centres  of  social  study,  and  parents, 
who  resent  the  intellectual  restrictions  which 
dogma  of  all  kinds — religious,  political,  and 
social — imposes  in  order  to  maintain  privilege  at 
the  expense  of  the  ignorant.     All  who  are  op- 

1  It  should  be  stated  that  both  the  writers  are  Anarchists, 
in  the  sense  I  have  indicated  in  the  Preface.  Except  on 
special  subjects — the  famous  geographer  Od6n  de  Buen, 
for  instance,  co-operated  with  Ferrer  in  regard  to  geo- 
graphy— no  other  writers  were  likely  to  embody  Ferrer's 
ideals.  All,  however,  were  as  opposed  to  violence  as 
Ferrer  himself,  and  Mr.  W.  Archer  has  shown  in  his  life  of 
Ferrer  that  the  charges  brought  against  Mme.  Jacquinet 
by  Ferrer's  persecutors  at  his  trial  are  officially  denied 
by  our  Egyptian  authorities. — J.  M. 


92  The  Modern  School 

posed  to  Jesuitism  and  to  conventional  lies,  and 
to  the  errors  transmitted  by  tradition  and  rou- 
tine, will  find  in  our  publications  truth  based 
upon  evidence.  As  we  have  no  desire  of  profit, 
the  price  of  the  works  represents  almost  their 
intrinsic  value  or  material  cost;  if  there  is  any 
profit  from  the  sale  of  them,  it  will  be  spent  upon 
subsequent  publications. 

In  a  later  number  of  the  Bulletin  (No.  6, 
second  year)  the  distinguished  geographer 
Eli  see  Reclus  wrote,  at  my  request,  a  lengthy 
article  on  the  teaching  of  geography.  In 
a  letter  which  Reclus  afterwards  wrote  me 
from  the  Geographical  Institute  at  Brussels, 
replying  to  my  request  that  he  should  recom- 
mend a  text-book,  he  said  that  there  was 
"no  text-book  for  the  teaching  of  geography 
in  elementary  schools";  he  "did  not  know 
one  that  was  not  tainted  with  religious  or 
patriotic  poison,  or,  what  is  worse,  adminis- 
trative routine."  He  recommended  that  the 
teachers  should  use  no  manual  in  the  Modern 
School,  which  he  cordially  commended  (Feb- 
ruary 26,  1903). 

In  the  following  number  (7)  of  the  Bulletin 
I  published  the  following  note  on  the  origin 
of  Christianity: — 


General  Public  and  the  Library    93 

The  older  pedagogy,  the  real,  if  una  vowed,  aim 
of  which  was  to  impress  children  with  the  useless- 
ness  of  knowledge,  in  order  that  they  might 
be  reconciled  to  their  hard  conditions  and  seek 
consolation  in  a  supposed  future  life ,  used  reading- 
books  in  the  elementary  school  which  swarmed 
with  stories,  anecdotes,  accounts  of  travels,  gems 
of  classical  literature,  etc.  There  was  a  good 
deal  of  error  mixed  with  what  was  sound  and 
useful  in  this,  and  the  aim  was  not  just.  The 
mystical  idea  predominated,  representing  that  a 
relation  could  be  established  between  a  Supreme 
Being  and  men  by  means  of  priests,  and  this 
priesthood  was  the  chief  foundation  of  the  exist- 
ence of  both  the  privileged  and  the  disinherited, 
and  the  cause  of  much  of  the  evil  that  they 
endured. 

Among  other  books  of  this  class,  all  tainted 
with  the  same  evil,  we  remember  one  which 
inserted  an  academic  discourse,  a  marvel  of 
Spanish  eloquence,  in  praise  of  the  Bible.  The 
gist  of  it  is  expressed  in  the  barbarous  declara- 
tion of  Omar  when  he  condemned  the  Library 
of  Alexandria  to  the  flames:  "The  whole  truth 
is  contained  in  the  sacred  book.  If  those  other 
books  are  true,  they  are  superfluous;  if  they 
are  not  true,  they  should  be  burned." 

The  Modern  School,  which  seeks  to  form  free 
minds,  with  a  sense  of  responsibility,  fitted  to 


94  The  Modern  School 

experience  a  complete  development  of  their 
powers,  which  is  the  one  aim  of  life,  must  neces- 
sarily adopt  a  very  different  kind  of  reading- 
book,  in  harmony  with  its  method  of  teaching. 
For  this  reason,  as  it  teaches  established  truth 
and  is  interested  in  the  struggle  between  light 
and  darkness,  it  has  deemed  it  necessary  to 
produce  a  critical  work  which  will  enlighten  the 
mind  of  the  child  with  positive  facts.  These 
may  not  be  appreciated  in  childhood,  but  will 
later,  in  manhood,  when  the  child  takes  its 
place  in  social  life  and  in  the  struggle  against  the 
errors,  conventions,  hypocrisies,  and  infamies 
which  conceal  themselves  under  the  cloak  of 
mysticism.  This  work  reminds  us  that  our 
books  are  not  merely  intended  for  children; 
they  are  destined  also  for  the  use  of  the  Adult 
Schools  which  are  being  founded  on  every  side 
by  associations  of  workers,  Freethinkers,  Co- 
operators,  social  students,  and  other  progressive 
bodies  who  are  eager  to  correct  the  illiteracy  of 
our  nation,  and  remove  that  great  obstacle  to 
progress. 

We  believe  that  the  section  of  Malvert's  work 
(Science  and  Religion)  which  we  have  entitled 
"The  Origin  of  Christianity"  will  be  useful  for 
this  purpose.  It  shows  the  myths,  dogmas,  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Christian  religion  in  their 
original  form;  sometimes  as  exoteric   symbols 


General  Public  and  the  Library    95 

concealing  a  truth  known  to  the  initiated ,  some- 
times as  adaptations  of  earlier  beliefs,  imposed 
by  sheer  routine  and  preserved  by  malice.  As 
we  are  convinced  and  have  ample  evidence  of  the 
usefulness  of  our  work,  we  offer  it  to  the  public 
with  the  hope  that  it  will  bear  the  fruit  which  we 
anticipate.  We  have  only  to  add  that  certain 
passages  which  are  unsuitable  for  children  have 
been  omitted;  the  omissions  are  indicated,  and 
adults  may  consult  the  passages  in  the  complete 
edition. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SUNDAY   LECTURES 

The  Modern  School  did  not  confine  itself  to 
the  instruction  of  children.  Without  for  a 
moment  sacrificing  its  predominant  character 
and  its  chief  object,  it  also  undertook  the 
instruction  of  the  people.  We  arranged  a 
series  of  public  lectures  on  Sundays,  and  they 
were  attended  by  the  pupils  and  other 
members  of  their  families,  and  a  large  number 
of  workers  who  were  anxious  to  learn. 

The  earlier  lectures  were  wanting  in  method 
and  continuity,  as  we  had  to  employ  lecturers 
who  were  quite  competent  in  regard  to  their 
own  subjects,  but  gave  each  lecture  without 
regard  to  what  preceded  or  followed.  On 
other  occasions,  when  we  had  no  lecturer,  we 
substituted  useful  readings.  The  general 
public  attended  assiduously,  and  our  adver- 
tisements in  the  Liberal  press  of  the  district 
were  eagerly  scanned. 
96 


Sunday  Lectures  97 

In  view  of  these  results,  and  in  order  to 
encourage  the  disposition  of  the  general 
public,  I  held  a  consultation  with  Dr.  Andres 
Martinez  Vargas  and  Dr.  Odon  de  Buen, 
Professors  at  the  Barcelona  University,  on 
the  subject  of  creating  a  popular  university 
in  the  Modern  School.  In  this  the  science 
which  is  given — or,  rather,  sold — by  the 
State  to  a  privileged  few  in  the  universities 
should  be  given  gratuitously  to  the  general 
public,  by  way  of  restitution,  as  every  human 
being  has  a  right  to  know,  and  science,  which 
is  produced  by  observers  and  workers  of  all 
ages  and  countries,  ought  not  to  be  restricted 
to  a  class. 

From  that  time  the  lectures  became  con- 
tinuous and  regular,  having  regard  to  the 
different  branches  of  knowledge  of  the  two 
lecturers.  Dr.  Martinez  Vargas  expounded 
physiology  and  hygiene,  and  Dr.  Odon  de 
Buen  geography  and  natural  science,  on 
alternate  Sundays,  until  we  began  to  be 
persecuted.  Their  teaching  was  eagerly  wel- 
comed by  the  pupils  of  the  Modern  School, 
and  the  large  audiences  of  mixed  children 
and  adults.  One  of  the  Liberal  journals  of 
Barcelona,  in  giving  an  account  of  the 
7 


98  The  Modern  School 

work,  spoke  of  the  function  as  "the  scientific 
Mass." 

The  eternal  light-haters,  who  maintain 
their  privileges  on  the  ignorance  of  the  people, 
were  greatly  exasperated  to  see  this  centre 
of  enlightenment  shining  so  vigorously,  and 
did  not  delay  long  to  urge  the  authorities, 
who  were  at  their  disposal,  to  extinguish  it 
brutally.  For  my  part,  I  resolved  to  put 
the  work  on  the  firmest  foundation  I  could 
conceive. 

I  recall  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that 
hour  we  devoted  once  a  week  to  the  confra- 
ternity of  culture.  I  inaugurated  the  lectures 
on  December  15,  1901,  when  Don  Ernesto 
Vendrell  spoke  of  Hypatia  as  a  martyr  to  the 
ideals  of  science  and  beauty,  the  victim  of 
the  fanatical  Bishop  Cyril  of  Alexandria. 
Other  lectures  were  given  on  subsequent 
Sundays,  as  I  said,  until,  on  October  5,  1902, 
the  lectures  were  organised  in  regular  courses 
of  science.  On  that  day  Dr.  Andres  Mar- 
tinez Vargas,  Professor  of  the  Faculty  of 
Medicine  (child  diseases)  at  Barcelona  Uni- 
versity, gave  his  first  lecture.  He  dealt  with 
the  hygiene  of  the  school,  and  expounded  its 
principles  in  plain  terms  adapted  to  the  minds 


Sunday  Lectures  99 

of  his  hearers.  Dr.  Odon  de  Buen,  Professor 
of  the  Faculty  of  Science,  dealt  with  the  use- 
fulness of  the  study  of  natural  history. 

The  press  was  generally  in  sympathy  with 
the  Modern  School,  but  when  the  programme 
of  the  third  scholastic  year  appeared  some  of 
the  local  journals,  the  Noticiero  Universal 
and  the  Diario  de  Barcelona,  broke  out.  Here 
is  a  passage  that  deserves  recording  as  an 
illustration  of  the  way  in  which  conservative 
journals  dealt  with  progressive  subjects : — 

We  have  seen  the  prospectus  of  an  educational 
centre  established  in  this  city,  which  professes  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  "dogmas  and  systems. " 
It  proposes  to  liberate  everybody  from  "authori- 
tarian dogmas,  venerable  sophisms,  and  ridicu- 
lous conventions."  It  seems  to  us  that  this 
means  that  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  tell  the  boys 
and  girls — it  is  a  mixed  school — that  there  is  no 
God,  an  admirable  way  of  forming  good  children, 
especially  young  women  who  are  destined  to  be 
wives  and  mothers. 

The  writer  continues  in  this  ironical  manner 
for  some  time,  and  ends  as  follows: — 

This  school  has  the  support  of  a  professor  of 
Natural  Science  (Dr.  Odon  de  Buen)  and  another 


ioo  The  Modern  School 

of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine.  We  do  not  name  the 
latter,  as  there  may  be  some  mistake  in  including 
him  among  the  men  who  lend  their  support  to 
such  a  work. 

These  insidious  clerical  attacks  were 
answered  by  the  anti-clerical  journals  of 
Barcelona  at  the  time. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  RESULTS 


At  the  beginning  of  the  second  scholastic 
year  I  once  more  drew  up  a  programme.  Let 
us,  I  said,  confirm  our  earlier  programme; 
vindicated  by  results,  approved  in  theory  and 
practice,  the  principle  which  from  the  first 
informed  our  work  and  governs  the  Modern 
School  is  now  unshakable. 

Science  is  the  sole  mistress  of  our  life.  In- 
spired with  this  thought,  the  Modern  School 
proposes  to  give  the  children  entrusted  to  it  a 
mental  vitality  of  their  own,  so  that  when  they 
leave  our  control  they  will  continue  to  be 
the  mortal  enemies  of  all  kinds  of  prejudices 
and  will  form  their  own  ideas,  individually 
and  seriously,  on  all  subjects. 

Further,   as   education   does   not   consist 

IOI 


102  The  Modern  School 

merely  in  the  training  of  the  mind,  but  must 
include  the  emotions  and  the  will,  we  shall 
take  the  utmost  care  in  the  training  of  the 
child  that  its  intellectual  impressions  are  con- 
verted into  the  sap  of  sentiment.  When  this 
attains  a  certain  degree  of  intensity,  it  spreads 
through  the  whole  being,  colouring  and  refin- 
ing the  individual  character.  And  as  the  con- 
duct of  the  youth  revolves  entirely  in  the 
sphere  of  character,  he  must  learn  to 
adopt  science  as  the  sole  mistress  of  his 
life. 

To  complete  our  principle  we  must  state 
that  we  are  enthusiastically  in  favour  of  mixed 
education,  so  that,  having  the  same  education, 
the  woman  may  become  the  real  companion 
of  man,  and  work  with  him  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  society.  This  task  has  hitherto  been 
confined  to  man;  it  is  time  that  the  moral 
influence  of  woman  was  enlisted  in  it.  Science 
will  illumine  and  guide  her  rich  vein  of  senti- 
ment, and  utilise  her  character  for  the  welfare 
of  the  race.  Knowing  that  the  chief  need 
in  this  country  is  a  knowledge  of  natural 
science  and  hygiene,  the  Modern  School 
intends  to  help  to  supply  it.  In  this  it  has 
the  support  of  Dr.  de  Buen  and  Dr.  Vargas, 


The  Results  103 

who  lecture,  alternately,  on  their  respective 
subjects. 

On  June  30,  1903,  I  published  in  the  Bul- 
letin the  following  declaration: — 

We  have  now  passed  two  years  in  expounding 
our  principles,  justifying  them  by  our  practice, 
and  enjoying  the  esteem  of  all  who  have  co- 
operated in  our  work.  We  do  not  see  in  this  any 
other  triumph  than  that  we  are  able  to  confirm 
confidently  all  that  we  have  proclaimed.  We 
have  overcome  the  obstacles  which  were  put  in 
our  way  by  interest  and  prejudice,  and  we  intend 
to  persevere  in  it,  counting  always  on  that  pro- 
gressive comradeship  which  dispels  the  darkness 
of  ignorance  with  its  strong  light.  We  resume 
work  next  September,  after  the  autumn  vacation. 
We  are  delighted  to  be  able  to  repeat  what  we 
said  last  year.  The  Modern  School  and  its 
Bulletin  renew  their  life,  for  they  have  filled,  with 
some  measure  of  satisfaction,  a  deeply-felt  need. 
Without  making  promises  or  programmes,  we 
will  persevere  to  the  limit  of  our  powers. 

In  the  same  number  of  the  Bulletin  was 
published  the  following  list  of  the  pupils  who 
had  attended  the  school  during  the  first  two 
years : — 


104 


The  Modern  School 


GIRLS. 

BOYS. 

TOTAL. 

MONTHS. 

1901-2, 1902-3. 

1901-2,  1902-3. 

1st  Yr.  2nd  Yr. 

Opening  day 

12     — 

18      — 

30      — 

September 

16     23 

23      40 

39    63 

October 

18     28 

25      40 

43     68 

November 

21     31 

29      40 

50     71 

December 

22     31 

30      40 

52     71 

January 

22     31 

32    44 

54    75 

February 

23     3i 

32    48 

55     79 

March 

25     33 

34    47 

59    80 

April 

26     32 

37    48 

63     80 

May 

30    33 

38    48 

68     81 

June 

32     34 

38    48 

70     82 

At  the  beginning  of  the  third  year  I  pub- 
lished with  special  pleasure  the  following 
article  in  the  Bulletin  on  the  progress  of  the 
School : — 


On  the  eighth  of  the  present  month  we  opened 
the  new  scholastic  year.  A  large  number  of 
pupils,  their  relatives,  and  members  of  the  gen- 
eral public  who  were  in  sympathy  with  our 
work  and  lectures,  filled  the  recently  enlarged 
rooms,  and,  before  the  commencement  of  the 
function,  inspected  the  collections  which  give 
the   school   the   appearance   of   a   museum   of 


The  Results  105 

science.  The  function  began  with  a  short 
address  from  the  director,  who  formally  declared 
the  opening  of  the  third  year  of  school  life,  and 
said  that,  as  they  now  had  more  experience  and 
were  encouraged  by  success,  they  would  carry 
out  energetically  the  ideal  of  the  Modern  School. 
Dr.  de  Buen  congratulated  us  on  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  School,  and  supported  its  aims. 
Education  should,  he  said,  reflect  nature,  as 
knowledge  can  only  consist  in  our  perception  of 
what  actually  exists.  On  the  part  of  his  children, 
who  study  at  the  School  and  live  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, he  paid  a  tribute  to  the  good-comrade- 
ship among  the  pupils,  with  whom  they  played 
and  studied  in  a  perfectly  natural  way.  He 
said  that  even  in  orthodox  education,  or  rather 
on  the  part  of  the  professors  engaged  in  it,  there 
were,  for  all  its  archaic  features,  certain  tend- 
encies similar  to  those  embodied  in  the  Modern 
School.  This  might  be  gathered  from  his  own 
presence,  and  that  of  Dr.  Vargas  and  other  pro- 
fessors. He  announced  that  there  was  already  a 
similar  school  at  Guadalajara,  or  that  one  would 
shortly  be  opened  there,  built  by  means  of  a 
legacy  left  for  the  purpose  by  a  humanitarian. 
He  wished  to  contribute  to  the  redemption  of 
children  and  their  liberation  from  ignorance  and 
superstition;  and  he  expressed  a  hope  and  very 
strong  wish  that  wealthy  people  would,  at  their 


106         The  Modern  School 

death,  restore  their  goods  in  this  way  to  the  social 
body,  instead  of  leaving  them  to  secure  an 
imaginary  happiness  beyond  the  grave. 

Dr.  Martinez  Vargas  maintained,  against  all 
who  thought  otherwise,  that  the  purely  scientific 
and  rational  education  given  in  the  Modern 
School  is  the  proper  basis  of  instruction;  no 
better  can  be  conceived  for  maintaining  the 
relations  of  the  children  with  their  families  and 
society,  and  it  is  the  only  way  to  form,  morally 
and  intellectually,  the  men  of  the  future.  He 
was  glad  to  hear  that  the  scholastic  hygiene 
which  had  been  practised  in  the  Modern  School 
during  the  previous  two  years,  involving  a 
periodical  examination  of  the  children,  and 
expounded  in  the  public  lectures,  had  received 
the  solemn  sanction  of  the  Hygienic  Congress 
lately  held  at  Brussels. 

Going  on  to  resume  his  lectures,  and  as  a 
means  of  enforcing  oral  instruction  by  visual 
perception,  he  exhibited  a  series  of  lantern- 
slides  illustrating  various  hygienic  exercises, 
certain  types  of  disease,  unhealthy  organs,  etc., 
which  the  speaker  explained  in  detail.  An 
accident  to  the  lantern  interrupted  the  pictures ; 
but  the  professor  continued  his  explanations, 
speaking  of  the  mischievous  effects  of  corsets,  the 
danger  of  microbic  infection  by  trailing  dresses 
or  by  children  playing  with  soil,  by  insanitary 


The  Results  107 

houses  and  workshops,  etc.,  and  promised  to 
continue  his  medical  explanations  during  the 
coming  year. 

The  audience  expressed  its  pleasure  at  the  close 
of  the  meeting,  and  the  sight  of  the  great  joy  of 
the  pupils  was  some  consolation  amid  the  hard- 
ships of  the  present,  and  a  good  augury  for  the 
future. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A  DEFENSIVE  CHAPTER 

Our  programme  for  the  third  scholastic  year 
(1903-4)  was  as  follows: — 

To  promote  the  progressive  evolution  of  child- 
hood by  avoiding  all  anachronistic  practices, 
which  are  merely  obstacles  placed  by  the  past 
to  any  real  advance  towards  the  future,  is,  in 
sum,  the  predominant  aim  of  the  Modern  School. 
Neither  dogmas  nor  systems,  moulds  which  con- 
fine vitality  to  the  narrow  exigencies  of  a  transi- 
tory form  of  society,  will  be  taught.  Only 
solutions  approved  by  the  facts,  theories  ac- 
cepted by  reason,  and  truths  confirmed  by 
evidence,  shall  be  included  in  our  lessons,  so 
that  each  mind  shall  be  trained  to  control  a 
will,  and  truths  shall  irradiate  the  intelligence, 
and,  when  applied  in  practice,  benefit  the  whole 
of  humanity  without  any  unworthy  and  dis- 
graceful exclusiveness. 

Two  years  of  success  are  a  sufficient  guarantee 
108 


A  Defensive  Chapter         109 

to  us.  They  prove,  in  the  first  place,  the  excel- 
lence of  mixed  education,  the  brilliant  result — ■ 
the  triumph,  we  would  almost  say — of  an  ele- 
mentary common  sense  over  prejudice  and 
tradition.  As  we  think  it  advisable,  especially 
that  the  child  may  know  what  is  happening 
about  it,  that  physical  and  natural  science  and 
hygiene  should  be  taught,  the  Modern  School 
will  continue  to  have  the  services  of  Dr.  de 
Buen  and  Dr.  Vargas.  They  will  lecture  on 
alternate  Sundays,  from  eleven  to  twelve,  on 
their  respective  subjects  in  the  school-room. 
These  lectures  will  complete  and  further  explain 
the  classes  in  science  held  during  the  week. 

It  remains  only  to  say  that,  always  solicitous 
for  the  success  of  our  work  of  reform,  we  have 
enriched  our  scholastic  material  by  the  acquisi- 
tion of  new  collections  which  will  at  once  assist 
the  understanding  and  give  an  attractiveness  to 
scientific  knowledge ;  and  that,  as  our  rooms  are 
now  not  large  enough  for  the  pupils,  we  have 
acquired  other  premises  in  order  to  have  more 
room  and  give  a  favourable  reply  to  the  petitions 
for  admission  which  we  have  received. 

The  publication  of  this  programme  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  reactionary  press, 
as  I  said.  In  order  to  give  them  a  proof  of 
the  logical  strength  of  the  position  of  the 


no  The  Modern  School 

Modern    School,    I    inserted    the    following 
article  in  the  Bulletin: — 

Modern  pedagogy,  relieved  of  traditions  and 
conventions,  must  raise  itself  to  the  height  of 
the  rational  conception  of  man,  the  actual  state 
of  knowledge,  and  the  consequent  ideal  of 
mankind.  If  from  any  cause  whatever  a  differ- 
ent tendency  is  given  to  education,  and  the 
master  does  not  do  his  duty,  it  would  be  just  to 
describe  him  as  an  impostor;  education  must 
not  be  a  means  of  dominating  men  for  the 
advantage  of  their  rulers.  Unhappily,  this  is 
exactly  what  happens.  Society  is  organised, 
not  in  response  to  a  general  need  and  for  the 
realisation  of  an  ideal,  but  as  an  institution  with 
a  strong  determination  to  maintain  its  primitive 
forms,  defending  them  vigorously  against  every 
reform,  however  reasonable  it  may  be. 

This  element  of  immobility  gives  the  ancient 
errors  the  character  of  sacred  belief  s,  invests  them 
with  great  prestige  and  a  dogmatic  authority, 
and  arouses  conflicts  and  disturbances  which 
deprive  scientific  truths  of  their  due  efficacy  or 
keep  them  in  suspense.  Instead  of  being 
enabled  to  illumine  the  minds  of  all  and  realise 
themselves  in  institutions  and  customs  of  general 
utility,  they  are  unhappily  restricted  to  the 
sphere  of  a  privileged  few.     The  effect  is  that, 


A  Defensive  Chapter         in 

as  in  the  days  of  the  Egyptian  theocracy,  there  is 
an  esoteric  doctrine  for  the  cultivated  and  an 
exoteric  doctrine  for  the  lower  classes — the 
classes  destined  to  labour,  defence,  and  misery. 
On  this  account  we  set  aside  the  mystic  and 
mythical  doctrine,  the  domination  and  spread  of 
which  only  befits  the  earlier  ages  of  human 
history,  and  embrace  scientific  teaching,  accord- 
ing to  its  evidence.  This  is  at  present  restricted 
to  the  narrow  sphere  of  the  intellectuals,  or  is 
at  the  most  accepted  in  secret  by  certain  hypo- 
crites who,  so  that  their  position  may  not  be 
endangered,  make  a  public  profession  of  the 
contrary.  Nothing  could  make  this  absurd 
antagonism  clearer  than  the  following  parallel, 
in  which  we  seethe  contrast  between  the  imagina- 
tive dreams  of  the  ignorant  believer  and  the 
rational  simplicity  of  the  scientist : — 

The  Bible.  Anthropism. 

The  Bible  contains  One    of    the     main 

the  annals  of  the  heav-  supports  of  the  reac- 

ens,  the  earth,  and  the  tionary  system  is  what 

human  race;  like  the  we  may  call  "anthrop- 

Deity  himself,  it  con-  ism."     I  designate  by 

tains  all  that  was,  is,  this  term  that  power- 

and   will   be.     On    its  ful  and  world-wide 

first  page  we  read  of  group  of  erroneous 


112 


The  Modern  School 


the  beginning  of  time 
and  of  things,  and  on 
its  last  page  the  end  of 
time  and  of  things.  It 
begins  with  Genesis, 
which  is  an  idyll,  and 
ends  with  Revelation, 
which  is  a  funeral 
chant.  Genesis  is  as 
beautiful  as  the  fresh 
breeze  which  sweeps 
over  the  world;  as  the 
first  dawn  of  light  in 
the  heavens;  as  the 
first  flower  that  opens 
in  the  meadows ;  as  the 
first  word  of  love  spok- 
en by  men ;  as  the  first 
appearance  of  the  sun 
in  the  east.  Revelation 
is  as  sad  as  the  last 
palpitation  of  nature; 
as  the  last  ray  of  the 
sun ;  as  the  last  breath 
of  a  dying  man.  And 
between  the  funeral 
chant  and  the  idyll 
there  pass  in  succession 
before  the  eyes  of  God 


opinions  which  opposes 
the  human  organism 
to  the  whole  of  the 
rest  of  nature,  and 
represents  it  as  the  pre- 
ordained end  of  or- 
ganic creation,  an 
entity  essentially  dis- 
tinct from  it,  a  god- 
like being.  Closer  ex- 
amination of  this  group 
of  ideas  shows  it  to  be 
made  up  of  three  dif- 
ferent dogmas,  which 
we  may  distinguish  as 
the  antkropocentric,  the 
anthropomorphic,  and 
the  anthropolatrous. 

i .  The  anthropo- 
centric  dogma  culmi- 
nates in  the  idea  that 
man  is  the  preordained 
centre  and  aim  of  all 
terrestrial  life — or,  in 
a  wider  sense,  of  the 
whole  universe.  As 
this  error  is  extremely 
conducive  to  man's  in- 
terest,   and    as    it    is 


A  Defensive  Chapter         113 


all  generations  and  all 
peoples.  The  tribes 
and  the  patriarchs  go 
by;  the  republics  and 
the  magistrates ;  the 
monarchies  and  their 
kings;  the  empires  and 
their  emperors.  Baby- 
lon and  all  its  abomina- 
tions go  by;  Nineveh 
and  all  its  pomps ; 
Memphis  and  its 
priests;  Jerusalem  and 
its  prophets  and  tem- 
ple ;  Athens  and  its  arts 
and  heroes;  Rome  and 
its  diadem  of  conqueror 
of  the  world.  Nothing 
lasts  but  God;  all  else 
passes  and  dies,  like  the 
froth  that  tips  the 
wave. 


A  prodigious  book, 
which  mankind  began 
to  read  three  and  thirty 
centuries  ago,  and  of 
which,  if  it  read  all  day 


intimately  connected 
with  the  creation-myth 
of  the  three  great  Medi- 
terranean religions,  and 
with  the  dogmas  of  the 
Mosaic,  Christian,  and 
Mohammedan  theolo- 
gies, it  still  dominates 
the  greater  part  of  the 
civilised  world. 

2.  The  anthropo- 
morphic dogma,  also, 
is  connected  with  the 
creation-myth  of  the 
three  aforesaid  reli- 
gions and  of  many 
others.  It  likens  the 
creation  and  control  of 
the  world  by  God  to 
the  artificial  creation 
of  an  able  engineer  or 
mechanic,  and  to  the 
administration  of  a 
wise  ruler.  God,  as 
creator,  sustainer,  and 
ruler  of  the  world,  is 
thus  represented  after 
a  purely  human  fash- 
ion in  his  thought  and 


H4 


The  Modern  School 


and  night,  it  would 
not  exhaust  the  wealth. 
A  prodigious  book  in 
which  all  was  calcu- 
lated before  the  science 
of  arithmetic  was  in- 
vented; in  which  the 
origin  of  language  is 
told  without  any  know- 
ledge of  philology;  in 
which  the  revolutions 
of  the  stars  are  de- 
scribed without  any 
knowledge  of  astro- 
nomy ;  in  which  history 
is  recorded  without 
any  documents  of  his- 
tory; in  which  the  laws 
of  nature  are  unveiled 
without  any  knowledge 
of  physics.  A  prodi- 
gious book,  that  sees 
everything  and  knows 
everything ;  that  knows 
the  thoughts  hidden  in 
the  hearts  of  men  and 
those  in  the  mind  of 
God;  that  sees  what 
is    happening    in    the 


work.  Hence  it  fol- 
lows that  man  in  turn 
is  godlike.  ' '  God  made 
man  to  his  own  image 
and  likeness."  The 
older,  naive  theology  is 
pure  "  homotheism, " 
attributing  human 
shape,  flesh,  and  blood 
to  the  gods.  It  is  more 
intelligible  than  the 
modern  mystic  theo- 
sophy  which  adores  a 
personal  God  as  an 
invisible — properly 
speaking,  gaseous — be- 
ing, yet  makes  him 
think,  speak,  and  act 
in  human  fashion;  it 
offers  us  the  paradoxi- 
cal picture  of  a  gaseous 
vertebrate. 

3.  The  anthropola- 
tric  dogma  naturally 
results  from  this  com- 
parison of  the  activity 
of  God  and  man;  it 
ends  in  the  apotheosis 
of  human  nature.     A 


A  Defensive  Chapter         115 


abysses  of  the  sea  and 
in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth;  that  records  or 
foretells  all  the  cata- 
strophes of  nations,  and 
in  which  are  accumu- 
lated all  the  treasures 
of  mercy,  of  justice, 
and  of  vengeance.  A 
book,  in  fine,  which, 
when  the  heavens  are 
folded  like  a  gigantic 
fan,  and  the  earth  sinks 
and  the  sun  withdraws 
its  light,  and  the  stars 
are  extinguished,  will 
remain  with  God,  be- 
cause it  is  his  eternal 
word,  echoing  for  ever 
in  the  heights.1 


further  result  is  the 
belief  in  the  personal 
immortality  of  the  soul 
and  the  dualistic  dog- 
ma of  the  twofold 
nature  of  man,  whose 
1 '  immortal"  soul  is  con- 
ceived as  the  temporary 
inhabitant  of  a  mortal 
frame.  Thus  these 
three  anthropistic  dog- 
mas, variously  adapted 
to  the  respective  pro- 
fessions of  the  different 
religions,  came  at 
length  to  be  vested 
with  extraordinary  im- 
portance, and  proved 
to  be  the  source  of  the 
most  dangerous  errors. 2 


In  face  of  this  antagonism,  maintained  by 
ignorance  and  self-interest,  positive  education, 
which  proposes  to  teach  truths  that  issue  in 
practical  justice,  must  arrange  and  systematise 
the  established  results  of  natural  research,  com- 

1  Extract  from  a  speech  delivered  by  Donoso  Cortes  at 
his  admission  into  the  Academy. 

2  Haeckel's  Riddle  of  the  Universe,  chap.  i. 


n6         The  Modern  School 

municate  them  to  children,  and  thus  prepare 
the  way  for  a  more  equitable  state  of  society, 
in  which,  as  an  exact  expression  of  sociology, 
it  must  work  for  the  benefit  of  all  as  well  as  of  the 
individual.  Moses,  or  whoever  was  the  author 
of  Genesis,  and  all  the  dogmatisers,  with  their 
six  days  of  creation  out  of  nothing  after  the 
Creator  has  passed  an  eternity  in  doing  nothing, 
must  give  place  to  Copernicus,  who  showed 
the  revolution  of  the  planets  round  the  sun; 
to  Galileo,  who  proclaimed  that  the  sun,  not 
the  earth,  is  the  centre  of  the  planetary  universe; 
to  Columbus  and  others  who,  believing  the 
earth  to  be  a  sphere,  set  out  in  search  of  other 
peoples,  and  gave  a  practical  basis  to  the  doctrine 
of  human  brotherhood ;  to  Linnaeus  and  Cuvier, 
the  founders  of  natural  history;  to  Laplace, 
the  inventor  of  the  established  cosmogony; 
to  Darwin,  the  author  of  the  evolutionary 
doctrine,  which  explains  the  formation  of  species 
by  natural  selection ;  and  to  all  who,  by  means  of 
observation  and  experiment,  have  discredited 
the  supposed  revelation,  and  tell  us  the  real 
nature  of  the  universe,  the  earth,  and  life. 

Against  the  evils  engendered  by  generations 
sunk  in  ignorance  and  superstition,  from  which  so 
many  are  now  delivered,  only  to  fall  into  an 
anti-social  scepticism,  the  best  remedy,  without 
excluding  others,  is  to  instruct  the  rising  genera- 


A  Defensive  Chapter         117 

tion  in  purely  humanist  principles  and  in  the 
positive  and  rational  knowledge  provided  by 
science.  Women  educated  thus  will  be  mothers 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  not  transmitters  of 
traditional  superstitions;  they  will  teach  their 
children  integrity  of  life,  the  dignity  of  life,  social 
solidarity,  instead  of  a  medley  of  outworn  and 
sterile  dogmas  and  submission  to  illegitimate 
hierarchies.  Men  thus  emancipated  from  mys- 
tery, miracle,  and  distrust  of  themselves  and 
their  fellows,  and  convinced  that  they  were 
born,  not  to  die,  as  the  wretched  teaching  of  the 
mystics  says,  but  to  live,  will  hasten  to  bring 
about  such  social  conditions  as  will  give  to 
life  its  greatest  possible  development.  In  this 
way,  preserving  the  memory  of  former  genera- 
tions and  other  frames  of  mind  as  a  lesson  and  a 
warning,  we  will  once  for  all  close  the  religious 
period,  and  enter  definitely  into  that  of  reason 
and  nature. 

In  June,  1904,  the  Bulletin  published  the 
following  figures  in  regard  to  the  attendance 
at  school.  At  that  time  the  publications  of 
the  Modern  School  were  in  use  in  thirty-two 
other  schools  throughout  the  country,  and  its 
influence  was  thus  felt  in  Seville  and  Malaga, 
Tarragona  and  Cordova,  and  other  towns, 
as  well  as  Barcelona  and  the  vicinity.     The 


n8 


The  Modern  School 


number  of  scholars  in  our  schools  was  also 
steadily  rising,  as  the  following  table  shows : — 

List  of  the  Pupils  in  the  Modern  School 
During  the  First  Three  Years. 


GIRLS. 

BOYS. 

TOTALS. 

MONTHS. 

<M° 

ro 

■* 

n       to      ^ 

H 

0 

m 

m          p»         ro 

1  st    2nd    3rd 

O 

O 

0 

OOO 

Ov          O*         Ov 

year  .year. year. 

Opening  day 

12 





18 

30 

September 

16 

23 

24 

23     40     40 

39  63    64 

October 

18 

28 

43 

25  40  59 

43  68  102 

November 

21 

31 

44 

29  40  59 

50  71  103 

December 

22 

31 

45 

30  40  59 

52  71  104 

January 

22 

31 

47 

32  44  60 

54  75  107 

February 

23 

31 

47 

32  48  61 

55  79  108 

March 

25 

33 

49 

34  47  61 

59  80  1 10 

April 

26 

32 

50 

37  48  61 

63  80  in 

May 

30 

33 

5i 

38  48  62 

68  81  113 

June 

32 

34 

5i 

38  48  63 

70  82  114 

CHAPTER  XV 

THE  INGENUOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHILD 

In  the  Bulletin  of  September  30,  1903,  we 
published  the  work  of  the  pupils  in  the  various 
classes  of  the  Modern  School,  which  had  been 
read  on  the  closing  day  of  the  second  scho- 
lastic year.  In  these  writings,  in  which  the 
children  are  requested  to  apply  their  dawning 
judgment  to  some  particular  subject,  the 
influence  of  mind  over  the  inexpert,  ingenu- 
ous reasoning  power,  inspired  by  the  senti- 
ment of  justice,  is  more  apparent  than  the 
observance  of  rules.  The  judgments  are  not 
perfect  from  the  logical  point  of  view,  only 
because  the  child  has  not  the  knowledge 
necessary  for  the  formation  of  a  perfectly 
sound  opinion.  This  is  the  opposite  of  what 
we  usually  find,  as  opinions  are  generally 
founded  only  on  prejudice  arising  from  tradi- 
tions, interests,  and  dogmas. 
119 


120  The  Modern  School 

A  boy  of  twelve,  for  instance,  gave  the 
following  principle  for  judging  the  value  of 
nations : — 

To  be  called  civilised,  a  nation  or  State  must 
be  free  from  the  following — 

Let  me  interrupt  for  a  moment  to  point  out 
that  the  young  author  identifies  "civilised" 
with  "just,"  and  especially  that,  putting 
aside  prejudice,  he  describes  certain  evils  as 
curable,  and  regards  the  healing  of  them  as  an 
essential  condition  of  justice.  These  evils 
are: — 

i .  The  co-existence  of  poor  and  rich,  and  the 
resultant  exploitation. 

2.  Militarism,  a  means  of  destruction  em- 
ployed by  one  nation  against  another,  due  to  the 
bad  organisation  of  society. 

3.  Inequality,  which  allows  some  to  rule 
and  command,  and  obliges  others  to  humble 
themselves  and  obey. 

This  principle  is  fundamental  and  simple, 
as  we  should  expect  to  find  in  an  imperfectly 
informed  mind,  and  it  would  not  enable  one  to 
solve  a  complete  sociological  problem;  but  it 
has  the  advantage  of  keeping  the  mind  open 


The  Ingenuousness  of  the  Child    121 

to  fresh  knowledge.  It  is  as  if  one  asked: 
What  does  a  sick  man  need  to  recover  health  ? 
And  the  reply  is:  His  suffering  must  disap- 
pear. This  is  a  naive  and  natural  reply,  and 
would  certainly  not  be  given  by  a  child 
brought  up  in  the  ordinary  way ;  such  a  child 
would  be  taught  first  to  consider  the  will  of 
supposed  supernatural  beings.  It  is  clear 
that  this  simple  way  of  putting  the  problem 
of  life  does  not  shut  out  the  hope  of  a  reason- 
able solution;  indeed,  the  one  logically  de- 
mands the  other,  as  the  same  child's  essay 
shows : — 

I  do  not  mean  that,  if  there  were  no  rich,  or 
soldiers,  or  rulers,  or  wages,  people  would  abuse 
their  liberty  and  welfare,  but  that,  with  every- 
body enjoying  a  high  degree  of  civilisation, 
there  would  be  universal  cordiality  and  friend- 
ship, and  science  would  make  much  greater 
progress,  not  being  interrupted  by  wars  and 
political  stagnation. 

A  girl  of  nine  made  the  following  sensible 
observation,  which  we  leave  in  her  own 
incorrect  language: — 

A   criminal   is   condemned   to   death;  if   the 


122  The  Modern  School 

murderer  deserves  this  punishment,  the  man 
who  condemns  him  and  the  man  who  kills  him 
are  also  murderers;  logically,  they  ought  to  die 
as  well,  and  so  humanity  would  come  to  an  end. 
It  would  be  better,  instead  of  punishing  a  crimi- 
nal by  committing  another  crime,  to  give  him 
good  advice,  so  that  he  will  not  do  it  again. 
Besides,  if  we  are  all  equal,  there  would  be  no 
thieves,  or  assassins,  or  rich  people,  or  poor,  but 
all  would  be  equal  and  love  work  and  liberty. 

The  simplicity,  clearness,  and  soundness  of 
this  observation  need  no  commentary.  One 
can  understand  our  astonishment  to  hear  it 
from  the  lips  of  a  tender  and  very  pretty  little 
girl,  who  looked  more  like  a  symbolical 
representation  of  truth  and  justice  than  a 
living  reality. 

A  boy  of  twelve  deals  with  sincerity,  and 
says: — 

The  man  who  is  not  sincere  does  not  live  peace- 
fully; he  is  always  afraid  of  being  discovered: 
when  one  is  sincere,  if  one  has  done  wrong,  the 
sincere  declaration  relieves  the  conscience.  If  a 
man  begins  to  tell  lies  in  childhood,  he  will  tell 
bigger  lies  when  he  grows  up,  and  may  do  much 
harm.  There  are  cases  in  which  one  need  not 
be   sincere.     For  instance,  if  a  man  comes   to 


The  Ingenuousness  of  the  Child    123 

our  house,  flying  from  the  police,  and  we  are 
asked  afterwards  if  we  have  seen  him,  we  must 
deny  it;  the  contrary  would  be  treachery  and 
cowardice. 

It  is  sad  that  the  mind  of  a  child  who 
regards  truth  as  an  incomparable  good, 
"without  which  it  is  impossible  to  live," 
is  induced  by  certain  grave  abuses  to  consider 
lying  a  virtue  in  some  cases. 

A  girl  of  thirteen  writes  of  fanaticism,  and, 
regarding  it  as  a  characteristic  of  backward 
countries,  she  goes  on  to  seek  the  cause: — 

Fanaticism  is  the  outcome  of  the  state  of  ignor- 
ance and  backwardness  of  women;  on  that 
account  Catholics  do  not  want  to  see  women 
educated,  as  they  are  the  chief  support  of  their 
system. 

A  profound  observation  on  the  causes  of 
fanaticism,  and  the  cause  of  the  causes. 
Another  girl  of  thirteen  indicates  the  best 
remedy  of  the  evil  in  the  following  lines: — 

The  mixed  school,  for  both  sexes,  is  supremely 
necessary.  The  boy  who  studies,  works,  and 
plays  in  the  society  of  girls  learns  gradually  to 
respect  and  help  her,  and  the  girl  reciprocally; 


124  The  Modern  School 

whereas,  if  they  are  educated  separately,  and  the 
boy  is  told  that  the  girl  is  not  a  good  companion 
and  she  is  worse  than  he,  the  boy  will  not  respect 
women  when  he  is  a  man,  and  will  regard  her  as 
a  subject  or  a  slave,  and  that  is  the  position  in 
which  we  find  women.  So  we  must  all  work 
for  the  foundation  of  mixed  schools,  wherever 
it  is  possible,  and  where  it  is  not  possible  we 
must  try  to  remove  the  difficulties. 

A  boy  of  twelve  regards  the  school  as 
worthy  of  all  respect,  because  we  learn  in  it 
to  read,  write,  and  think,  and  it  is  the  basis 
of  morality  and  science;  he  adds: — 

If  it  were  not  for  the  school  we  should  live  like 
savages,  walk  naked,  eat  herbs  and  raw  flesh, 
and  dwell  in  caves  and  trees;  that  is  to  say,  we 
should  live  a  brutal  life.  In  time,  as  a  result  of 
the  school,  everybody  will  be  more  intelligent, 
and  there  will  be  no  wars  or  inflamed  populations 
and  people  will  look  back  on  war  with  horror  as 
a  work  of  death  and  destruction.  It  is  a  great 
disgrace  that  there  are  children  who  wander  in 
the  streets  and  do  not  go  to  school,  and  when 
they  become  men  it  is  more  disgraceful.  So  let 
us  be  grateful  to  our  teachers  for  the  patience 
they  show  in  instructing  us,  and  let  us  regard 
the  school  with  respect. 


The  Ingenuousness  of  the  Child    125 

If  that  child  preserves  and  develops  the  facul- 
ties it  exhibits,  it  will  know  how  to  harmonise 
egoism  and  altruism  for  its  own  good  and  that 
of  society.  A  girl  of  eleven  deplores  that 
nations  destroy  each  other  in  war,  and  laments 
the  difference  of  social  classes  and  that  the 
rich  live  on  the  work  and  privation  of  the 
poor.     She  ends: — 

Why  do  not  men,  instead  of  killing  each  other 
in  wars  and  hating  each  other  for  class-differ- 
ences, devote  themselves  cheerfully  to  work  and 
the  discovery  of  things  for  the  good  of  mankind  ? 
Men  ought  to  unite  to  love  each  other  and  live 
fraternally. l 

A  child  of  ten,  in  an  essay  which  is  so  good 
that  I  would  insert  it  whole  if  space  permitted 
and  if  it  were  not  for  the  identity  in  senti- 
ment with  the  previous  passages,  says  of  the 
school  and  the  pupil : — 

Reunited  under  one  roof,  eager  to  learn  what 

1 1  omit  some  of  Ferrer's  short  comments  on  these  speci- 
mens of  reasoning  and  sentiment,  as  he  regards  them.  One 
can  recognise  the  echo  of  the  teacher's  words.  The 
children  were  repeating  their  catechism.  But  (i)  this  is 
no  catechism  of  violence  and  class-hatred,  and  (2)  there  is 
a  distinct  apppreciation  of  the  ideas  and  sentiments  on  the 
part  of  the  children.  I  translate  the  passages  as  literally 
as  possible. — J.  M. 


126  The  Modern  School 

we  do  not  know,  without  distinction  of  classes 
[there  were  children  of  university  professors 
among  them,  it  will  be  remembered],  we  are 
children  of  one  family  guided  to  the  same  end. 
.  .  .  The  ignorant  man  is  a  nullity;  little  or 
nothing  can  be  expected  of  him.  He  is  a  warn- 
ing to  us  not  to  waste  time;  on  the  contrary, 
let  us  profit  by  it,  and  in  due  course  we  shall 
be  rewarded.  Let  us  not  miss  the  fruits  of  a 
good  school,  and,  honouring  our  teachers,  our 
family,  and  society,  we  shall  live  happily. 

A  child  of  ten  philosophises  on  the  faults 
of  mankind,  which,  in  her  opinion,  can  be 
avoided  by  instruction  and  goodwill: — 

Among  the  faults  of  mankind  are  lying,  hypo- 
crisy, and  egoism.  If  men,  and  especially 
women,  were  better  instructed,  and  women  were 
entirely  equal  to  men,  these  faults  would  dis- 
appear. Parents  would  not  send  their  children 
to  religious  schools,  which  inculcate  false  ideas, 
but  to  rational  schools,  where  there  is  no  teach- 
ing of  the  supernatural,  which  does  not  exist; 
nor  to  make  war;  but  to  live  in  solidarity  and 
work  in  common. 

We  will  close  with  the  following  essay, 
written  by  a  young  lady  of  sixteen,  which  is 
correct  enough  in  form  and  substance  to  quote 
in  entirety: — 


The  Ingenuousness  of  the  Child    127 

What  inequality  there  is  in  the  present  social 
order!  Some  working  from  morning  to  night 
without  more  profit  than  enough  to  buy  their 
insufficient  food;  others  receiving  the  products 
of  the  workers  in  order  to  enjoy  themselves  with 
the  superfluous.  Why  is  this  so?  Are  we  not 
all  equal?  Undoubtedly  we  are;  but  society 
does  not  recognise  it,  while  some  are  destined 
to  work  and  suffering,  and  others  to  idleness  and 
enjoyment.  If  a  worker  shows  that  he  realises 
the  exploitation  to  which  he  is  subject,  he  is 
blamed  and  cruelly  punished,  while  others  suffer 
the  inequality  with  patience.  The  worker  must 
educate  himself;  and  in  order  to  do  this  it  is 
necessary  to  found  free  schools,  maintained  by 
the  wages  which  the  rich  give.  In  this  way  the 
worker  will  advance  more  and  more,  until  he  is 
regarded  as  he  deserves,  since  the  most  useful 
mission  of  society  depends  on  him. 

Whatever  be  the  logical  value  of  these 
ideas,  this  collection  shows  the  chief  aim 
of  the  Modern  School — namely,  that  the 
mind  of  the  child,  influenced  by  what  it  sees 
and  informed  by  the  positive  knowledge  it 
acquires,  shall  work  freely,  without  prejudice 
or  submission  to  any  kind  of  sect,  with 
perfect  autonomy  and  no  other  guide  but 
reason,  equal  in  all,  and  sanctioned  by  the 


128  The  Modern  School 

cogency  of  evidence,  before  which  the  dark- 
ness of  sophistry  and  dogmatic  imposition 
is  dispelled. 

In  December,  1903,  the  Congress  of  Railway 
Workers,  which  was  then  held  at  Barcelona, 
informed  us  that,  as  a  part  of  its  pro- 
gramme, the  delegates  would  visit  the  Modern 
School.  The  pupils  were  delighted,  and  we 
invited  them  to  write  essays  to  be  read  on  the 
occasion  of  the  visit.  The  visit  was  prevented 
by  unforeseen  circumstances;  but  we  pub- 
lished in  the  Bulletin  the  children's  essays, 
which  exhaled  a  delicate  perfume  of  sincerity 
and  unbiassed  judgment,  graced  by  the  naive 
ingenuousness  of  the  writers.  No  suggestion 
was  made  to  them,  and  they  did  not  compare 
notes,  yet  there  was  a  remarkable  agreement 
in  their  sentiments.  At  another  time  the 
pupils  of  the  Workers'  School  at  Badalona 
sent  a  greeting  to  our  pupils,  and  they  again 
wrote  essays,  from  which  we  compiled  a 
return  letter  of  greeting. r 

1  This  letter  and  the  preceding  essays  are  given  in  the 
Spanish  edition.  As  they  are  a  repetition  of  the  sentiments 
expressed  in  the  extracts  already  given,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
reproduce  them  here.  Except  that  I  have  omitted  papers 
incorporated  by  Ferrer,  but  not  written  by  him,  this  is  the 
only  modification  I  have  allowed  myself. — J.  M. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE       BULLETIN 


The  Modern  School  needed  and  found  its 
organ  in  the  Press.  The  political  and  ordin- 
ary press,  which  at  one  time  favoured  us  and 
at  another  time  denounced  us  as  dangerous, 
cannot  maintain  an  impartial  attitude.  It 
either  gives  exaggerated  or  unmerited  praise, 
or  calumnious  censures.  The  only  remedy 
for  this  was  the  sincerity  and  clearness  of  our 
own  indications.  To  allow  these  libels  to 
pass  without  correction  would  have  done  us 
considerable  harm,  and  the  Bulletin  enabled 
us  to  meet  them. 

The  directors  published  in  it  the  pro- 
gramme of  the  school,  interesting  notes  about 
it,  statistical  details,  original  pedagogical 
articles  by  the  teachers,  accounts  of  the  pro- 
gress of  rational  education  in  our  own  and 
other   countries,    translations   of   important 

9  129 


130  The  Modern  School 

articles  from  foreign  reviews  and  periodicals 
which  were  in  harmony  with  the  main  char- 
acter of  our  work,  reports  of  the  Sunday 
lectures,  and  announcements  of  the  public 
competitions  for  the  engagement  of  teachers 
and  of  our  library. 

One  of  the  most  successful  sections  of  the 
Bulletin  was  that  devoted  to  the  publication 
of  the  ideas  of  the  pupils.  Besides  showing 
their  individual  ideas  it  revealed  the  spon- 
taneous manifestation  of  common  sense. 
Girls  and  boys,  with  no  appreciable  difference 
in  intellect  according  to  sex,  in  contact  with 
the  realities  of  life  as  indicated  by  the  teachers, 
expressed  themselves  in  simple  essays  which, 
though  sometimes  immature  in  judgment, 
more  often  showed  the  clear  logic  with  which 
they  conceived  philosophical,  political,  or 
social  questions  of  some  importance.  The 
journal  was  at  first  distributed  without 
charge  among  the  pupils,  and  was  exchanged 
with  other  periodicals;  but  there  was  soon 
a  demand  for  it,  and  a  public  subscription 
had  to  be  opened.  When  this  was  done,  the 
Bulletin  became  a  philosophical  review,  as 
well  as  organ  of  the  Modern  School;  and  it 
retained  this  character  until  the  persecution 


The  "Bulletin"  131 

began  and  the  school  was  closed.  An  instance 
of  the  important  mission  of  the  Bulletin  will 
be  found  in  the  following  article,  which  I 
wrote  in  No.  5  of  the  fourth  year,  in  order  to 
correct  certain  secular  teachers  who  had 
gone  astray: — 

A  certain  Workers'  School  has  introduced  the 
novelty  of  establishing  a  savings-bank,  adminis- 
tered by  the  pupils.  This  piece  of  information, 
reproduced  in  terms  of  great  praise  by  the  press 
as  a  thing  to  be  imitated,  induces  us  to  express 
our  opinion  on  the  subject.  While  others  have 
their  own  right  to  decide  and  act,  we  have  the 
same  right  to  criticise,  and  thus  to  create  a 
rational  public  opinion. 

In  the  first  place  we  would  observe  that  the 
word  economy  is  very  different  from,  if  not  the 
opposite  of,  the  idea  of  saving.  One  may  teach 
children  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  economy 
without  necessarily  teaching  them  to  save. 
Economy  means  a  prudent  and  methodical  use  of 
one's  goods:  saving  means  a  restriction  of  one's 
use  of  one's  goods.  By  economising,  we  avoid 
waste;  by  saving,  the  man  who  has  nothing 
superfluous  deprives  himself  of  what  is  necessary. 

Have  the  children  who  are  taught  to  save  any 
superfluous  property?  The  very  name  of  the 
society  in  question  assures  us  that  they  have  not. 


132  The  Modern  School 

The  workers  who  send  their  children  to  this 
school  live  on  their  wages,  the  minimum  sum, 
determined  by  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand, 
which  is  paid  for  their  work  by  the  employers; 
and  as  this  wage  gives  them  nothing  superfluous, 
and  the  social  wealth  is  monopolised  by  the 
privileged  classes,  the  workers  are  far  from 
obtaining  enough  to  live  a  life  in  harmony  with 
the  progress  of  civilisation.  Hence,  when  these 
children  of  workers,  and  future  workers  them- 
selves, are  taught  to  save — which  is  a  voluntary 
privation  under  the  appearance  of  interest — they 
are  taught  to  prepare  themselves  to  submit  to 
privilege.  While  the  intention  is  to  initiate  them 
to  the  practice  of  economy,  what  is  really  done  is 
to  convert  them  into  victims  and  accomplices  of 
the  present  unjust  order. 

The  working-class  child  is  a  human  child ,  and, 
as  such,  it  has  a  right  to  the  development  of  all  its 
faculties,  the  satisfaction  of  all  its  needs,  moral 
and  physical.  For  that  purpose  society  was 
instituted.  It  is  not  its  function  to  repress  or 
subject  the  individual,  as  is  selfishly  pretended  by 
the  privileged  and  reactionary  class,  and  all  who 
enjoy  what  others  produce;  it  has  to  hold  the 
balance  justly  between  the  rights  and  duties  of 
all  members  of  the  commonwealth. 

As  it  is,  the  individual  is  asked  to  sacrifice  his 
rights,  needs,  and  pleasures  to  society;  and,  as 


The  "Bulletin"  133 

this  disorder  demands  patience,  suffering,  and 
sophistical  reasoning,  let  us  commend  economy 
and  blame  saving.  We  do  not  think  it  right  to 
teach  children  to  look  forward  to  being  workers  in 
a  social  order  in  which  the  average  mortality  of 
the  poor,  who  live  without  freedom,  instruction, 
or  joy,  reaches  an  appalling  figure  in  comparison 
with  that  of  the  class  which  lives  in  triumph  on 
their  labour.  Those  who,  from  sociolatry,  would 
derogate  in  the  least  from  the  rights  of  man, 
should  read  the  fine  and  vigorous  words  of 
Pi  y  Margall:  "Who  art  thou  to  prevent  my  use 
of  my  human  rights?  Perfidious  and  tyrannical 
society,  thou  wert  created  to  defend,  not  to 
coerce  us.  Go  back  to  the  abyss  whence  thou 
earnest." 

Starting  from  these  principles,  and  applying 
them  to  pedagogy,  we  think  it  necessary  to 
teach  children  that  to  waste  any  class  of  objects 
is  contrary  to  the  general  welfare ;  that  if  a  child 
spoils  paper,  loses  pens,  or  destroys  books,  it 
does  an  injustice  to  its  parents  and  the  school. 
Assuredly  one  may  impress  on  the  child  the 
need  of  prudence  in  order  to  avoid  getting  imper- 
fect things,  and  remind  it  of  lack  of  employment, 
illness,  or  age;  but  it  is  not  right  to  insist  that  a 
provision  be  made  out  of  a  salary  which  does  not 
suffice  to  meet  the  needs  of  life.  That  is  bad 
arithmetic. 


134         The  Modern  School 

The  workers  have  no  university  training;  they 
do  not  go  to  the  theatre  or  to  concerts;  they 
never  go  into  ecstasies  before  the  marvels  of  art, 
industry,  or  nature;  they  have  no  holiday  in 
which  to  fill  their  lungs  with  life-giving  oxygen; 
they  are  never  uplifted  by  reading  books  or 
reviews.  On  the  contrary,  they  suffer  all  kinds 
of  privations,  and  may  have  to  endure  crises  due 
to  excessive  production.  It  is  not  the  place  of 
teachers  to  hide  these  sad  truths  from  the  children 
and  to  tell  them  that  a  smaller  quantity  is  equal 
to,  if  not  better  than,  a  larger.  In  order  that 
the  power  of  science  and  industry  be  shared 
by  all,  and  all  be  invited  to  partake  of  the  ban- 
quet of  life,  we  must  not  teach  in  the  school,  in 
the  interest  of  privilege,  that  the  poor  should 
organise  the  advantages  of  crumbs  and  leavings. 
We  must  not  prostitute  education. 

On  another  occasion  I  had  to  censure  a 
different  departure  from  our  principles: — 

We  were  distressed  and  indignant  on  reading 
the  list  of  contributions  voted  by  the  Council 
of  Barcelona  for  certain  popular  societies  which 
are  interested  in  education.  We  read  of  sums 
offered  to  Republican  Fraternities  and  similar 
societies;  and  we  find  that,  instead  of  rejecting 


The  " Bulletin"  135 

them,  they  forwarded  votes  of  thanks  to  the 
Council. 

The  meaning  of  these  things  in  a  Catholic  and 
ultra-conservative  nation  is  clear.  The  Church 
and  the  capitalist  system  only  maintain  their 
ascendency  by  a  judicious  system  of  charity  and 
protection.  With  this  they  gratify  the  disin- 
herited class,  and  continue  to  enjoy  its  respect. 
But  we  cannot  see  republicans  acting  as  if  they 
were  humble  Christians  without  raising  a  cry 
of  alarm. 

Beware,  we  repeat,  beware!  You  are  educat- 
ing your  children  badly,  and  taking  the  wrong 
path  towards  reform,  in  accepting  alms.  You 
will  neither  emancipate  yourselves  nor  your 
children  if  you  trust  in  the  strength  of  others, 
and  rely  on  official  or  private  support.  Let  the 
Catholics,  ignorant  of  the  realities  of  life,  expect 
everything  of  God,  or  St.  Joseph,  or  some  similar 
being,  and,  as  they  have  no  security  that  their 
prayers  will  be  heard  in  this  life,  trust  to  receive  a 
reward  after  death.  Let  gamblers  in  the  lottery 
fail  to  see  that  they  are  morally  and  materially 
victimised  by  their  rulers,  and  trust  to  receive 
by  chance  what  they  do  not  earn  by  energy. 
But  it  is  sad  to  see  men  hold  out  the  hand  of  a 
beggar,  who  are  united  in  a  revolutionary  protest 
against  the  present  system;  to  see  them  admit- 
ting and  giving  thanks  for  humiliating  gifts, 


136  The  Modern  School 

instead  of  trusting  their  own  energy,  intellect, 
and  ability. 

Beware,  then,  all  men  of  good  faith!  That  is 
not  the  way  to  set  up  a  true  education  of  children, 
but  the  way  to  enslave  them. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  CLOSING  OF  THE  MODERN   SCHOOL 

I  have  reached  the  culmination  of  my  life 
and  my  work.  My  enemies,  who  are  all  the 
reactionaries  in  the  world,  represented  by  the 
reactionaries  of  Barcelona  and  of  Spain,  be- 
lieved that  they  had  triumphed  by  involving 
me  in  a  charge  of  attempted  assassination. 
But  their  triumph  proved  to  be  only  an  epi- 
sode in  the  struggle  of  practical  Rationalism 
against  reaction.  The  shameful  audacity 
with  which  they  claimed  sentence  of  death 
against  me  (a  claim  that  was  refused  on  ac- 
count of  my  transparent  innocence  rather 
than  on  account  of  the  justice  of  the  court) 
drew  on  me  the  sympathy  of  all  liberal  men — 
all  true  progressives — in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
and  fixed  attention  on  the  meaning  and  ideal 
of  the  Rational  School.  There  was  a  uni- 
versal and  uninterrupted  movement  of  pro- 
test and  admiration  for  a  whole  year — from 
137 


138  The  Modern  School 

May,  1906,  to  May  and  June,  1907 — echoed 
in  the  Press  of  every  civilised  country,  and 
in  meetings  and  other  popular  manifestations. 

It  proved  in  the  end  that  the  mortal 
enemies  of  our  work  were  its  most  effective 
supporters,  as  they  led  to  the  establishment 
of  international  Rationalism. 

I  felt  my  own  littleness  in  face  of  this 
mighty  manifestation.  Led  always  by  the 
light  of  the  ideal,  I  conceived  and  carried 
out  the  International  League  for  the  Ration- 
al Education  of  Children,  in  the  various 
branches  of  which,  scattered  over  the  world, 
are  found  men  in  the  front  ranks  of  culture 
[Anatole  France,  Ernst  Haeckel,  etc.].  It 
has  three  organs,  UEcole  Renovee  in  France, 
the  Bulletin  in  Barcelona,  and  La  Scuola  Laica 
at  Rome,  which  expound,  discuss,  and  spread 
all  the  latest  efforts  of  pedagogy  to  purify 
science  from  all  defilement  of  error,  to  dispel 
all  credulity,  to  bring  about  a  perfect  harmony 
between  belief  and  knowledge,  and  to  destroy 
that  privileged  esoteric  system  which  has 
always  left  an  exoteric  doctrine  to  the  masses. 

This  great  concentration  of  knowledge  and 
research  must  lead  to  a  vigorous  action  which 
will  give  to  the  future  revolution  the  char- 


Closing  of  the  Modern  School  139 

acter  of  practical  manifestation  of  applied 
sociology,  without  passion  or  demand  of 
revenge,  with  no  terrible  tragedies  or  heroic 
sacrifices,  no  sterile  movements,  no  disillu- 
sion of  zealots,  no  treacherous  returns  to 
reaction.  For  scientific  and  rational  educa- 
tion will  have  pervaded  the  masses,  making 
each  man  and  woman  a  self-conscious,  active, 
and  responsible  being,  guiding  his  will 
according  to  his  judgment,  free  for  ever  from 
the  passions  inspired  by  those  who  exploit 
respect  for  tradition  and  for  the  charlatanry 
of  the  modern  framers  of  political  pro- 
grammes. 

If  progress  thus  loses  this  dramatic  char- 
acter of  revolution,  it  will  gain  in  firmness, 
stability,  and  continuity,  as  evolution.  The 
vision  of  a  rational  society,  which  revolution- 
aries foresaw  in  all  ages,  and  which  sociolog- 
ists confidently  promise,  will  rise  before  the 
eyes  of  our  successors,  not  as  the  mirage  of 
dreamy  Utopians,  but  as  the  positive  and 
merited  triumph  won  by  the  revolutionary 
power  of  reason  and  science. 

The  new  repute  of  the  educational  work  of 
the  Modern  School  attracted  the  attention 
of  all  who  appreciated  the  value  of  sound 


140         The  Modern  School 

instruction.  There  was  a  general  demand  for 
knowledge  of  the  system.  There  were  num- 
bers of  private  secular  schools,  or  similar 
institutions  supported  by  societies,  and  their 
directors  made  inquiry  concerning  the  differ- 
ence of  our  methods  from  theirs.  There  were 
constant  requests  to  visit  the  school  and  con- 
sult me.  I  gladly  satisfied  them,  removed 
their  doubts,  and  pressed  them  to  enter  on  the 
new  way;  and  at  once  efforts  were  made  to 
reform  the  existing  schools,  and  to  create 
others  on  the  model  of  the  Modern  School. 
There  was  great  enthusiasm  and  the 
promise  of  mighty  things;  but  one  serious 
difficulty  stood  in  the  way:  we  were  short  of 
teachers,  and  had  no  means  of  creating  them. 
Professional  teachers  had  two  disadvantages 
— traditional  habits  and  dread  of  the  contin- 
gencies of  the  future.  There  were  very  few 
who,  in  an  unselfish  love  of  the  ideal,  would 
devote  themselves  to  the  progressive  cause. 
Instructed  young  men  and  women  might  be 
found  to  fill  the  gap ;  but  how  were  we  to  train 
them?  Where  could  they  pass  their  appren- 
ticeship? Now  and  again  I  heard  from 
workers'  or  political  societies  that  they  had 
decided  to  open  a  school;  they  would  find 


Closing  of  the  Modern  School  141 

rooms  and  appliances,  and  we  could  count 
upon  their  using  our  school  manuals.  But 
whenever  I  asked  if  they  had  teachers,  they 
replied  in  the  negative,  and  thought  it  would 
be  easy  to  supply  the  want.     I  had  to  give  in. 

Circumstances  had  made  me  the  director  of 
rationalist  education,  and  I  had  constant 
consultations  and  demands  on  the  part  of 
aspirants  for  the  position  of  teacher.  This 
made  me  realise  the  defect,  and  I  endeavoured 
to  meet  it  by  private  advice  and  by  admitting 
young  assistants  in  the  Modern  School.  The 
result  was  naturally  mixed.  There  are  now 
worthy  teachers  who  will  carry  on  the  work 
of  rational  education  elsewhere;  others  failed 
from  moral  or  intellectual  incapacity. 

Not  feeling  that  the  pupils  of  the  Modern 
School  who  devoted  themselves  to  teaching 
would  find  time  for  their  work,  I  established 
a  Normal  School,  of  which  I  have  already 
spoken.  I  was  convinced  that,  if  the  key 
of  the  social  problem  is  in  the  scientific  and 
rational  school,  it  is  essential,  to  make  a 
proper  use  of  the  key,  that  fitting  teachers 
be  trained  for  so  great  a  destiny. 

As  the  practical  and  positive  result  of  my 
work,  I  may  say  that  the  Modern  School  of 


142  The  Modern  School 

Barcelona  was  a  most  successful  experiment, 
and  that  it  was  distinguished  for  two  char- 
acteristics : — 

1.  While  open  to  successive  improve- 
ments, it  set  up  a  standard  of  what  education 
should  be  in  a  reformed  state  of  society. 

2.  It  gave  an  impulse  to  the  spread  of 
this  kind  of  education. 

There  was  up  to  that  time  no  education  in 
the  true  sense  of  the  word.  There  were,  for 
the  privileged  few  in  the  universities,  tradi- 
tional errors  and  prejudices,  authoritarian 
dogmas,  mixed  up  with  the  truths  which 
modern  research  has  brought  to  light.  For 
the  people  there  was  primary  instruction, 
which  was,  and  is,  a  method  of  taming 
children.  The  school  was  a  sort  of  riding- 
school,  where  natural  energies  were  subdued 
in  order  that  the  poor  might  suffer  their  hard 
lot  in  silence.  Real  education,  separated 
from  faith — education  that  illumines  the 
mind  with  the  light  of  evidence — is  the 
creation  of  the  Modern  School. 

During  its  ephemeral  existence1  it  did  a 
marvellous    amount    of    good.     The    child 

1  The  Modern  School  was  closed  after  Ferrer's  arrest  in 
1906.— J.  M. 


Closing  of  the  Modern  School  143 

admitted  to  the  school  and  kept  in  contact 
with  its  companions  rapidly  changed  its 
habits,  as  I  have  observed.  It  cultivated 
cleanliness,  avoided  quarrels,  ceased  to  be 
cruel  to  animals,  took  no  notice  in  its  games 
of  the  barbarous  spectacle  which  we  call  the 
national  entertainment  [bull-fight],  and,  as  its 
mind  was  uplifted  and  its  sentiments  purified, 
it  deplored  the  social  injustices  which  abound 
on  the  very  face  of  life.  It  detested  war, 
and  would  not  admit  that  national  glory, 
instead  of  consisting  in  the  highest  possible 
moral  development  and  happiness  of  a  people, 
should  be  placed  in  conquest  and  violence. 

The  influence  of  the  Modern  School,  ex- 
tended to  other  schools  which  had  been 
founded  on  its  model  and  were  maintained 
by  various  working-men  societies,  penetrated 
the  families  by  means  of  the  children.  Once 
they  were  touched  by  the  influence  of  reason 
and  science  they  were  unconsciously  con- 
verted into  teachers  of  their  own  parents,  and 
these  in  turn  diffused  the  better  standards 
among  their  friends  and  relatives. 

This  spread  of  our  influence  drew  on  us  the 
hatred  of  Jesuitism  of  all  kinds  and  in  all 
places,  and  this  hatred  inspired  the  design 


144  The  Modern  School 

which  ended  in  the  closing  of  the  Modern 
School.  It  is  closed;  but  in  reality  it  is 
concentrating  its  forces,  defining  and  improv- 
ing its  plan,  and  gathering  the  strength  for  a 
fresh  attempt  to  promote  the  true  cause  of 
progress. 

That  is  the  story  of  what  the   Modern 
School  was,  is,  and  ought  to  be. 


EPILOGUE 

By  J.  M. 

"That  is  the  story  of  what  the  Modern 
School  was,  is,  and  ought  to  be."  When 
Ferrer  wrote  this,  in  the  summer  of  1908,  he 
was  full  of  plans  for  the  continuation  of  his 
work  in  various  ways.  He  was  fostering  such 
free  schools  as  the  Government  still  per- 
mitted. He  was  promoting  his  "popular 
university, "  and  multiplying  works  of  science 
and  sociology  for  the  million.  His  influence 
was  growing,  and  he  saw  with  glad  eyes  the 
light  breaking  on  the  ignorant  masses  of  his 
fellows.  In  the  summer  of  1909  he  came  to 
England  to  study  the  system  of  moral  instruc- 
tion which,  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
Moral  Instruction  League,  is  used  in  thou- 
sands of  English  schools.  A  friend  in  London 
begged  him  never  to  return  to  Spain,  as  his 
life  was  sought.  He  knew  it,  but  nothing 
would  divert  him  from  his  ideal.  And  three 
10  145 


146  The  Modern  School 

months  later  he  was  shot,  among  the  graves 
of  criminals,  in  the  trenches  of  Montjuich. 

Form  your  own  opinion  of  him  from  his 
words.  He  conceals  nothing.  He  was  a 
rebel  against  religious  traditions  and  social 
inequalities ;  he  wished  children  to  become  as 
resentful  of  poverty  and  superstition  as  he. 
There  is  no  law  of  Spain,  or  of  any  other 
country,  that  forbids  such  enterprise  as  his. 
He  might  be  shot  in  Russia,  of  course;  for 
the  law  has  been  suspended  there  for  more 
than  a  decade.  In  Spain  men  had  to  lie  in 
order  to  take  his  life. 

With  the  particular  value  of  his  scheme  of 
education  I  am  not  concerned.  He  was  well 
acquainted  with  pedagogical  literature,  and 
there  were  few  elementary  schools  in  Spain  to 
equal  his.  Writers  who  have  spoken  slight- 
ingly of  his  school,  apart  from  its  social 
dogmas,  know  little  or  nothing  about  it. 
Ferrer  was  in  close  and  constant  association 
with  two  of  the  ablest  professors  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Barcelona,  one  of  whom  sent  his 
children  to  the  school,  and  with  distinguished 
scholars  in  other  lands.  There  was  more 
stimulating  work  done  in  the  Modern  School 
than,    probably,    in    any    other    elementary 


Epilogue  147 

school  in  Spain,  if  not  elsewhere.  All  that 
can  be  questioned  is  the  teaching  of  an  explicit 
social  creed  to  the  children.  Ferrer  would 
have  rejoined  that  there  was  not  a  school  in 
Europe  that  does  not  teach  an  explicit  social 
creed.  But,  however  we  may  differ  from  his 
creed,  we  cannot  fail  to  recognise  the  elevated 
and  unselfish  idealism  of  the  man,  and  deplore 
the  brutality  and  illegality  with  which  his 
genial  life  was  prematurely  brought  to  a 
close. 


THE    END 


The  Psychology  of 
Revolution 

By   Gustave   Le   Bon 

Author  of  "  The  Crowd :  A  Study  of  the  Popular  Mind  " 

Translated  by  Bernard  Niall 

8°.     337  Pages.     $2.50  net.     By  mail,  $2.75 

Brief    Contents 

Part  I. — The  Psychological  Elements  of  Revolutionary 
Movements — General  Characteristics  of  Revolutions 
— The  Forms  of  Mentality  Prevalent  During 
Revolution. 

Part  II. — The  Origins  of  the  French  Revolution — The 
Rational,  Affective,  Mystic,  and  Collective  Influences 
Active  During  the  Revolution — The  Conflict  between 
Ancestral  Influences  and  Revolutionary  Principles. 

Part  III. — The  Recent  Evolution  of  the  Revolutionary 
Principles. 

A  book  of  an  arresting  character,  in  which  the  author 
makes  specific  application  of  his  theory  of  crowds  to 
activities  in  which  the  influence  of  the  masses  is  most 
far-reaching.  In  it  are  discussed  with  that  graceful  turn 
of  phrase  of  which  the  author  is  a  master,  the  psychology 
of  revolutions  in  general,  whether  religious  or  political, 
and  the  mental  and  emotional  make-up  of  the  leaders  of 
such  movements,  with  very  special  and  detailed  con- 
sideration of  the  French  Revolution.  The  examples  are, 
by  preference,  chosen  from  French  history,  but  universal 
history  is  drawn  upon  too,  even  to  the  inclusion  of 
such  recent  events  as  the  political  cataclysms  in  Turkey, 
Portugal,  and  China. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  London 


Only   Authorized   Edition 

An  Introduction  to 
Metaphysics 

By  Henri  Bergson 

Member  of  the  Institute  and  Professor  of  the 
College  de  France 

Translated  by  T.  E.  Hulme 

Authorized  Edition,  Revised  by  the  Author,  with 
Additional  Material 

12°.     75  cts.  net.    By  mail,  85  cts. 

"  I  certify  that  the  translation  of  my  volume  Introduc- 
tion to  Metaphysics,  which  has  been  prepared  by  Mr.  T. 
E.  Hulme,  is  the  only  English  version  to  which  I  have 
given  my  authorization.  I  may  add  that  Mr.  Hulme  was 
excellently  well  qualified  for  his  task  by  the  careful  study 
that  he  has  made  of  the  whole  series  of  my  writings.  I 
have  examined  his  translation  with  care  and  am  able 
to  say  that  it  renders  with  remarkable  accuracy  the 
thought  and  the  conclusions  presented  in  my  volume." 

Henri  Bergson. 

This  volume  forms  the  best  introduction  to  M.  Bergson 's 
philosophy.  In  it  the  author  explains  with  a  thoroughness 
not  attempted  in  his  other  books  the  precise  meaning  he 
wishes  to  convey  by  the  word  intuition.  A  reading  of 
this  book  is,  therefore,  indispensable  to  a  proper  under- 
standing of  Bergson's  position.  German,  Italian,  Hun- 
garian, Swedish,  and  Russian  translations  of  it  have 
already  appeared,  testifying  to  its  intrinsic  importance 
and  indicating  the  scope  of  its  appeal. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

N«="w  "YorH  London 


Symbol  and  Satire  in  the 
French  Revolution 

By  Ernest  F.  Henderson 

Ph.D.  (Berlin),  L.H.D.  (Trinity) 

8°.     With  171  Illustrations  Reproduced  from  Con- 
temporary Prints.     $4.00  net.     By  mail,  $4.25 

Contents  s  Introductory —Liberty — Equality 
—  Fraternity — Flight — Probation — Down- 
fall —  Massacre  —  War  —  Proscription  — 
Terror — Idolatry — Reaction — Index. 

Of  books  on  the  French  Revolution  there 
have  been  many,  but  Mr.  Henderson's  Symbol 
and  Satire  covers  a  field  almost  untouched.  It 
draws  art  into  the  service  of  history  in  a 
wholly  original  way.  Incidentally  it  gives  a 
very  full  series,  beautifully  reproduced,  of  the 
extant  broadsides,  allegories,  caricatures,  and 
cartoons.  But  the  work  is  much  more  than  a 
mere  collection  of  illustrations.  Based  mainly 
on  original  material  and  written  with  a  keen 
eye  for  the  dramatic,  the  book  is  likely  to 
prove  the  most  popular  succinct  history  of  the 
Revolution  that  has  appeared  since  Carlyle. 
The  results  of  modern  research  are  embodied 
in  it  and  it  will  prove  as  interesting  to  the 
student  as  to  the  general  reader. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT 

of 

THE  EUROPEAN  NATIONS 

1870-1900 
By  J.  HOLLAND  ROSE,  Litl.D. 

Author  ol  "The  Personality  of  Napoleon," 

"The  Revolutionary  and  Napoleonic 

Era,  1789-1815,"  etc. 

8°.     2  vols.,  with  maps.     Net,  $5.00 
Carriage  50  cents 

A  discussion  by  a  scholar  of  authority  of 
those  events  which  had  a  distinct  formative 
influence  upon  the  development  of  European 
States  during  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  a  period  remarkable  because  of  the 
great  progress  made  by  the  people  of  Europe 
in  their  efforts  to  secure  a  larger  measure  of 
political  freedom  for  the  individual,  and  the 
legitimate  development  of  the  nation. 

In  his  introductory  chapter,  Mr.  Rose 
sketches  briefly  the  main  events  leading  up 
to  1870,  and  then  in  his  later  chapters  con- 
siders the  causes  which  led  to  the  wonderful 
development   of  the  last   thirty   years  of  the 

century- ,^S 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

New  York  London 


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